Yes the days are gone of a big happy crew going out together but thats just another negative of this long running dispute. It will be hard to heal the damage done and you don't have to be a militant to understand this concern. Its a shame for the minority of pilots who were understanding of our dispute but as a community you let us down that fact will not be lost be they militant or non militant cabin crew.
Those days were gone looooong before this dispute. What seems to have been misunderstood by WWW and others is that nobody cares about the hard core of nutters anymore, or what they choose to do with themselves downroute. There are very many pleasant strikers I've enjoyed the company of over the last year (including ex-union reps). I'm sure the reasonably minded will all continue in the way they have done. The lost cause as such are the aforementioned hard core. They'll tell you that it's because 'they can't forgive the pilots for what they've done', but the reality is they hated pilots long before the dispute and they'll continue to hate them long after so there really is no point in concerning oneselves with them. The reasons for their hatred are entirely internal, but the VCC program has given them a convenient figleaf to hide their insecurities and prejudices behind. They've convinced themselves the VCC program has legitimised their own personal grievances and now take comfort in spreading the discord which consumes them to a wider audience. In essence, there really is nothing that can be done by us to help this minority as they must help themselves with their own longstanding personal issues. Only then can they reintegrate with the majority of the workforce. Perhaps the first step towards helping themselves is to appreciate that the world doesn't revolve around them and nobody really cares if they choose to exclude themselves. Everybody else will be in the same bars doing the same thing they always did. If an angry individual chooses to exclude themselves then it's really no skin off our collective noses.