Fantom, by hanging out in Pprune rather than your "Private" room, others can make reasoned judgements. You may wish to hang out behind your Balpa Box key too. No wish to pull of thread but look, I have been very anti Union since I entered the employment scene in 1965. Unions were FULL of the bully boys who would otherwise have no power whatsoever. They nearly bought the whole damn country to it's knees. I had to laugh, sitting on the loo at LGW reading the graffiti written on the back of the toilet door. One contributor exclaimed "Workers, UNITE to smash big business". A reply was pencilled in.."And then who would YOU work for" !
Therein lies the roots. Into professional flying, I resisted nasty bully boy tactics to join BALPA. The usual Flt Deck chats with unbalanced views failed to pursuade. Even then, whole mobs were insensed that I was enjoying terms & Conditions negotiated by BALPA. I was happy to negotiate my own TCs with the Management but it became clear that I would most likely enjoy greatly enhanced status and was pursuaded by my Fleet Captain to drop the issue.
Winning the "James Thane" case was the fave "pursuasive" case argument offered by one, so called 'Training Captain' who , failing to succeed, retorted that he & other BALPA Captains would cease to offer me any handling " in order to protect" me !
I left the damned BALPA company & joined a Company who's Management view was very anti-union. I enjoyed fabbo flying days, better terms & conditions & moved again, only for better Command Opportunity. My pursuasion to my new Company Management was that a really good company would never need a Union. They agreed.BAPLA never got a look in because there was no need to "UNITE" !
TCX appears to be a Union Company. Should you wish to accept employment in such a scenario, you go with the ball game. If within the game, one remains free to join or remain outside, that freedom should be respected.
On thread, stay on site TCX & do not let anyone , er, "pursuade" you into anything you feel to be unprofessional. Good luck to all who face very unsettling and worrying times.