Moses30u ... I think pilots fly without the need to go as VCC ... and I think they are better paid at the front of the plane than in the cabin. Other VCC fly because they want to end the BASSA control of the company. If you need further examples of BASSAs negotiating skills, take a look at DH discussing the way forward with his own union members .... negotiation is not an option even here with people who pay his wages. It is DHs way or the highway.
You say about "Weren’t BALPA calling for a strike a few years ago, due to a cheap fleet of pilots arriving?" Why didn't it happen. Negotiation occured. Notice the difference.
Gate Gourmet? Get real - Gate Gourment sacked their own employees 5 and a half years ago - it was nothing to do with issues with BA management. It was BA empoloyees "supporting" their friends \ family at Gate Gourmet at Union insistence.
Cheap labour - well, we can agree to disagree on that. It is certainly cheaper labour than current T & C s but that is the same throughout the airline and country. New employees almost everywhere are on new T & Cs including the removal of final salary pension schemes. Mixed Fleet will only work if cabin crew stay and can live on the wage. That is the same with any job. From bus driver to pilot. From banker to bank clerk. But are you seriously suggesting that current crew are so thoughtful and considerate that they were voting to strike over someone elses wages and not their own. How noble ;-)
Even Betty Girl - which of the points you mention were the original cause of this dispute? I accept things have moved on ... but the actual causes of this dispute ... can you confirm that Unite and BA had agreed in principal an agreement as far back as Dec 2009 which BASSA scuppered?
Mariner 9 - I agree totally. And perhaps strikers could post back what they want to end this dispute.
Ancient Observer (and this is where I would agree with Moses). I don't believe BA have gone through 14 months of this to hand back everything now (and I think that is what the strikers want). Other departments felt WW went quite far enough even handing back ST (even with loss of seniority) after it was withdrawn. It is a now (I believe) a dispute about who runs the airline and it isn't one that BASSA can win.
Sadly BASSA have backed themselves into a corner. And BA don't need them anymore. Ultimately it is the cabin crew that will suffer.