While those of you on the other side of the pond sleep some of us get to post. Last night I had many wonderful things to say, however cocktail hour caused me to defer. Today I read AV Fyer’s post and he\she said everything I could have said but much more eloquently. I would, however,like to make an observation that may be worthy of discussion.
If KW/BA make any significant concessions to Bassa there may be a hugh backlash from other BA employees as well as a potential backlash from BA’s most valued customers. While it can be said that customers do not care about this dispute and only care about the reliability of the service that may be changing. The reliability of the service has been established and the core business customer is probably sympathetic to BA. Many cc posters have said that they just would like it over so life can be good again. Other cc are not so sanguine. My observation is that the majority of BA’s 30,000 plus other employees will not be so happy if Bassa is able to claim, rightfully or wrong, a victory.
I indicated in an earlier post that an agreement was unlikely given that neither side was advantaged by a compromise that the other side was likely to accept. BA is doing just fine in the current situation and Bassa, at least Bassa leadership, is also content. LB pointed out that BA has an incentive to settle because of the financial damage the threat of IA is causing. While this is certainly correct the financial damage is decreasing day by day. BA must evaluate the damage caused by the current disagreement with the consequences of any settlement.
The next 28 days will be interesting. The recent “happy talk” may develop and provide some type of accommodation or it may be just “happy talk”.