CB
I believe, looking from the outside, that Balpa in BA has huge advantages. These are 1) High percentage of the work force are members and 2) The management are prepared to talk to the union.
At a lot of other airlines where recognition has been forced through ACAS with 51% membership the management don't want to talk to them and the members don't understand what I was saying in my previous post. Balpa head office provides the reps and company councils with tools to be used, including each company being allocated it's own negotiator. But after that the Balpa that Flybe pilots have is not the same Balpa that BA pilots have and that is not the same Balpa that BMI pilots have etc. The union at each airline is dependent on the company council members being prepared to go up against the management and not being there to serve their own ends. Anyone who moans about "their" union should be asking "could I do better?", and if the answer is yes they should be standing for election at the next opportunity.
The membership fees doesn't go to the company council members or the reps, who often give up a lot of their own time and also may well earn less in flight pay as a result of union duties. They just get their out of pocket expenses reimbursed. It supports Balpas head office, which in my humble opinion could just as easily be in a set of portacabins in Swindon as in a smart office at Heathrow. Whilst most of the head office staff have the needs of the pilots at heart it should not be forgotten that the more members the more secure Balpa staffs jobs are. It should also, in my opinion, be remembered that about three years ago Balpas full time staff came within days of strike action to preserve their own final salary pension scheme - probably partly financed by membership fees - at a time when only two UK airlines still provided such schemes for employees.
Sorry about drifting off the thread, by the way.