Mohitomaster,
The Union strapline of 'Union Busting' has grown so stale it is well past needing to be put deep down in the bin. The Union (Unite/BASSA et al) have had no constructive, reasoned or valid argument against the requirement for the IFcE department to implement cost savings measures with the rest of the company. They have been unable to force/cajoule/bully their unwillingness to change through with IA threats and action and are left still in the water.
As BASSA were patently incapable of negotiating in a rasonable manner in the first place, as they lost grip of the power they had through vague IA threats, they had to come up with a new threat. Union Busting.
If BA wanted to 'bust' the Union they could have done quite easily and legally over the past two years after failed legal action by Unite and highly questionable actions of the BASSA board in giving advice to mmbers (former and not) and posting confidential personal information, or implenetation of various employment laws stating that the action would cause detrimental losses to the company. Given the past economic situation I don't think any employment tribunal would have disagreed.
BA would be quite happy to work with a rational, forward thinking and pro active BASSA. Sadly such an entity doesn't exist. Unite calls for negotion but seem to forget the BASSA shouted mandate of 'no negotiation'. It's still available on You Tube.
All work groups require some form of Union representation in a company as big as BA. However the time where the Union hold the power to dictated company policy is behind us. BASSA have always based negotiations upon the premise that IA will cause the company to fail and the IFcE management to give in to their demands. No longer. It will be interesting to see if the PCCC garners enough support to be recognised and perhaps we will then see a period of Union representation that represents the entire CC workforce not just those at the top.
'Work to rule'? I'm fairly certain the others of us in BA wouldn't notice the difference. Laminated Card anyone?
Edit: For Mildly Militant:
This stems from the initial messages from BASSA that, if the implementation goes through the company wouldn't be worth working for thus it would be better to 'bring it down'
No 'dog eat dog' just a frustrated sense that BASSA have had BA by the balls for too long and, IFcE, as a department have failed to change with the times for too long and been supported by the rest of the employee groups for too long. Hence the 'willingness' of the VCC community. If BASSA have a 'valid' argument then the willingness wouldn't be there.