How does this end?
Like others, I do wonder how this dispute will end.
In the past I've been in many heavy duty Employee Relations disputes, (in the old days, we called them Industrial Relations disputes), but none quite like this.
From my perspective, the differences are perhaps small, but they do add up.
1. In any dispute the "sides" go through a period of hating each other. That is very true in this dispute. However, in most other disputes the key participants accept that in the end they have a vested interest in the Company surviving and prospering. In bassa's case, no-one appears to accept this. Rather, many would prefer to see BA go to the wall rather than compromise on anything.
2. The "best we can achieve by negotiation" settlement is normally either the end of a dispute, or the beginning of the end. In bassa's case it appears that "the best we can achieve by negotiation" was simply an excuse to put to-gether a longer list of demands. The Untie FTOs were made to look stupid by the bassa junta.
3. Most disputes where strike action is taken do not set back the members quite as much as bassa's actions have done. All that bassa members have done is to lose stuff, mainly due to bassa incompetence.
4. In most disputes, Managers take responsibility for getting out there and talking to staff. In widely dispersed maintenance operations across the UK, for instance, it was the managers job to be talking around the engineers and their colleagues. In BA, it would appear that managers either sit in their office, or they might turn up to the crew briefing zone. The managers don't appear to accept the responsibility for the behaviour of their staff, and don't get out and about enough. Why, then, are they managers?
These are only some of the things that look in my opinion to be different.
If much of this is the case, this dispute will not end until the bassa top junta are all removed, and until BA hold their managers accountable..