Looks like Branson has fallen for the poisonous HR led attack on the union. With a dismally low approval rating of just 6% for the current Flight Operations management team (independently sourced staff satisfaction survey commissioned by Virgin Atlantic) the pilots are obviously fed up with more than just the headline pay offer.
Any management team that can lead a company into a strike where an almost unprecedented, overwhelming 97% (94% of all pilots) voted for industrial action surely needs to look at where it has gone wrong. If pilots haven't been on strike for 34 years you can't call this a militant group of workers.
It would appear that this ruinous management team are hoping that the wrath of public opinion against the pilots will carry them through. Very sad as this looks like being the end for Virgin Atlantic. The pilots will strike and most probably will risk bringing the company down.
Boeing and Airbus both predict massive shortages of experienced airline pilots over the next 20 years so an experienced workforce should have little problem finding new jobs even though it will mean a period of hardship and upheaval. With Branson having swallowed the advice of his management team, he will let them try and break the union. If his company is so precariously balanced on whether he can afford to pay his pilots then perhaps it is time for the demise of his airline.