Actually that is not so.
The idea you have about the issues between pilots and management is clearly biassed by the media, which is normal. Iberia has a huge influence in them, because they buy so many newspapers.
As a matter of fact there hasn't been actual strikes in a looong time. About 12 years ago there was a big one and the government imposed a referee, who dictated they could not strike in 5 years, and they had to accept substantial changes in their T&Cs. And after that they didn't strike, except a few times they have made those stupid undercover "I will do my duty, but not beyond" style (I don't know the english word for that kind of industrial action). Even when their conditions have been constantly worsening and IB has been playing with Clickair, Vueling and Audeli, which were doing Iberia flights for years.
However in the media it seems as if they had went on strike every christmas, every Easter, every summer, every year.
Iberia has not hired a pilot in 10 years. And many of those were sacked soon after they were hired. The management remains basically the same, which is odd in a company like this. What is happening now has been planned during all these years.
SEPLA agreed the BA merger with the management on the premises that their jobs would be secured. Also, they thought they were going to start Iberia Express from within, with severe cuts in the T&Cs, but in the last minute the management inexplicably backed. It was all a trick. For years they have kept the pilots relatively inactive, cheating them over and over.
The real plan was very different. The merger was nothing but a way of absorbing Iberia for free. And with Iberia, the control of Barajas. That's what it's all about: an operation to acquire a company like Iberia for nothing. And including a lot of cash, which BA needed badly.
As an spanish, I regret the merger very much. The big plan of Walsh was this amazing blooming of BA at the expense of IB, so he will not surrender easily, not now that they are so close, with the crisis imposing these nonsense of cuts and unacceptable changes in our regulations.
However, who knows, maybe the Iberia pilots are tougher than we think and manage to reach an agreement.