Studi, this is a load of cobblers!
exactly! That is why it is absolutely wrong to say yes!
BA pilots don't get anything in return for integrating BMI except the "promise" from hardball Willy that no new company will be set up. Anyone with the slightest realistic view of the world and industrial relations will see that this "promise" is worthless. Without a new scope agreement (that reflects the emergence of IAG) you are just giving Willy a few gifts for free:
1. pp34 for new joiners (very bad to sell out the new guys)
2. higher work hours
3. less off days
And the worst:
4. You actually help Willy to turn around BMI by helping him to dispose the BMI employees into BA at NO cost for him. This gives him much more management capacity to actually set up BA Express if he wishes so or to create other things to put you guys under pressure, as you just cleaned out his biggest problem and you even paid for it!
If only because with bmi absorbed into BA there are no slots available to "set up BA Express"
If only because IAG is spending hundreds of millions to buy and absorb bmi (BA pilots are not being asked to supply hundreds of millions, only £10m)
There are no "less off days", we still will get the same number of days off, we simply have to finance the agreed difference!
The "promise" from Willy is the improved career structure and prospects that will come in time from changing the slots that bmi brings into use for longhaul expansion.
I don't think you have the faintest understanding of what is going on here!