BG thanks for your kind words.As you have said in your post you were not ecstatic at the idea of WW 767 work on EF, other C/C wish it were the case... And I think that is the very problem Bassa is faced with.Over the years the company has recruited a wide variety of c/c coming from an extremely diverse background,national origins,culture,values ect. In the 80's the recruitment standards were set as to attract mostly candidates from a British middle class,educated background speaking at least a foreign language.Post privatisation cost control became more pressing, it was proving more difficult to attract candidates of the same calibre whilst controlling cost.This is when the recruitment wave of Spanish,Italian and French started. Early 2000 c/c recruitment was relaxed and targeted everyone and anyone no language required.As a result Bassa are representing an odd mix of people with different priorities, aspiration,lifestyle ect.
It is almost impossible to satisfactorily represent such a diverse bunch.of staff. I have no doubt that this fact alone makes it difficult for Bassa to reach an acceptable agreement.
This fact has probably not been overlooked by the LT when they decided to remove staff travel, knowing that that alone would put Bassa in a very difficult position. It was inevitable that many people would back the company mainly to keep their staff travel and retain the ability to commute from Europe and not out of sympathy for the company
Rather than stimulate a constructive dialogue this has cause the dispute to drag on, resentment to fester and a sincere feeling of discrimination amongst those who went on strike.Ultimately nothing is resolved, people (on both side of the fence) keep suffering and the dispute drags on. This is why, in my opinion,the meddling and interfering from other department has not helped at all. Allowing this dispute to be dealt with fairly and constructively should have been the priority on both side.Not the childish behaviour that has been observed..