... and MUST be allowed to negotiate with their new employers.
There is no legal requirement for your new employer to negotiate with you. There is only a legal requirement for your new employer to consult you. There is a world of difference with a potential world of pain attached.
You may be allowed an opportunity to negotiate with BA, you may not. In which case, if you're lucky I would suggest it's better to go in with a well reasoned
and costed case. The BACC may be able to help you there.
Just one other point about the cost base.......everyone seems to directly equate 'cost base' to pilot's pay......actually it reflects the entire undertaking. Yes they will screw down every last they can, but the complete package has to be addressed.
BA might find benefit by paying more in one area for a double saving in another - optimistically all pilots should be trying to be in the former group.
You're correct up to a point. I suspect BMIs two largest costs are the same as BA's. Fuel and bodies. Fuel costs will be reduced by combining them with BA's colossal fuel purchases. However, BA will remove any duplication of bodies so that there will be relatively few people taken on from BMI beyond the crews - and they are only being taken on to operate the aircraft being inherited. As a result, the pilots pay bill takes up a larger proportion of those remaining costs than it would have done previously, especially given that the pilots are likely to be the best paid BMI employees. Any increase to this will affect the bottom line and this will not be acceptable to BA. Sad but true.