It's easy to blame BASSA, but I feel that their management must share some culpability for failing to communicate effectively the challenges that BA was facing and the sacrifices other workers were making. I still think that if the "rank and file" BASSA members had been kept fully "in the loop" that very few would have heeded the union's clarion call and very few would have lost their staff travel.
If it really, really wanted to, British Airways could put every single employee on a new contract immediately. With the formation of IAG, British Airways plc, the name under which our contracts were accepted, ceased to exist. However, the "Leadership Team" have that essential quality - a sheer British sense of fair play - and I'm sure the idea of putting all staff on new contracts in order to disadvantage them would be dismissed out of hand.
bealine, I think you have a fair point regarding communication. From the outside, it seems there has been too much managing by e-mail and not enough face to face communication.
The formation of IAG does not mean current employment contracts are not worth the paper they are written on. The new BA operating entity will have inherited these contracts and the obligations that arise from them.