BG,
I get the joke, no snags, although your analogy would have to contain us refusing to negotiate at a union level before hand (
)! However, I think the point that people are urging upon you here is that the change in the ruleset (when all changes are taken into account) would place negotiated industrial agreements so far from the legal maximums that it would only be a matter of time before airlines started rostering towards them (if not, as you point out re industrial v scheme, all the way to the absolute limit). When that process begins BA will have only one choice and that will be to do the same or become increasingly more and more expensive in comparison to our competitors. Like it or not, I don't believe people will pay that much of a premium to fly BA. And when that happens, it'll be our agreements, all of our agreements, placed under a very forensic microscope. But, as I said yesterday, I fervently, genuinely hope that you're right and I'm wrong. Better still, I hope we can stop this EASA bastardisation (even some of their own points admit they're not scientifically proven and are driven by commercial aspects - that's an alarm bell, right there) before it even gets wings (sorry).
MrB
PS As much as I like it, I can't really justify heavy captains in today's competitive marketplace and I know I'm shooting my future command in the foot by supporting that viewpoint.