Nice to hear a comment from a BA captain recently that he wished BALPA was "a bit more like BASSA".
The problem for BA flight crew that under the guidance of BALPA, they are dying a death by a thousand cuts. The creed of feeding the crocodile in the hope it will eat you last, has been exploited by Willie best demonstrated by him cheekily and opportunistically, taking two days leave off of you and shafting future average holiday pay supplements.
Although the many critics here love to pan BASSA, it was actually a brilliant result. Remember the "fight for survival" was caused by an artificially created record loss following a record profit the year before. Willie and Keith Williams were running BA similar to the Greek economy and the pilots fell for it. Like OpenSkies and the future BA Express, there was nothing that BASSA could do if BA wished to start a new cabin crew contract and fleet. That has happened and the damage to the brand is ongoing as the new recruits "bed in". Please excuse that expression in light of the number of "little Nigels and Nigellas", created through steamy liasons with a number of these allegedly rampant nubile lovelies.
Since the treacherous actions of BA pilots towards their cabin crew colleagues, things don't seem to be going too well. In particular the reverses in pay and conditions to satisfy the crocodile, as BALPA acts in an all too malleable fashion.
Legacy cabin crew are more than happy with their outcome even if promotion opportunities have dried up. Many Pursers have actually volunteered to work down, so are really not too bothered about career progression. At least the Legacy crew have not emulated the mistakes of the clever pilots, by going over to an hourly rate. The weakness of the Pound has decimated the buying power of the UK currency over the aslt four years, whereas the cabin crew benefit from local inflation, and currencies that have surged in strength like the Australian Dollar and the Brazilian Real.
So chaps you need to worry about your own patch, rather than volunteering to serve drinks and screwing your colleagues.
Last edited by Count Niemantznarr; 10th July 2012 at 22:21.