Litebulbs is right, BA must be spending millions to ensure that a strike has minimal impact upon the operation. This one fact alone should be giving UNITE pause for thought. The issues here are more than just settling a dispute, after all BA could easily solve this dispute by giving in to UNITE, so if BA are prepared to pay millions to defy the blackmail of IA, you have to ask why.
This is about BA being able to manage it's affairs without the constant interference from a troublesome and out of touch union. It is not about union busting but about resetting the relationship between union and company, putting it on the same footing that the other branches of UNITE are on. BA have no problems with dealing with unions nor with UNITE branches other than BASSA.
BASSA are not management and have no right to be management, something that seems to be difficult for some of them to grasp.