Pilot Volunteers not sent home
Just a minor correction Wirbelsturm, As a pilot volunteer myself we weren't all sent home, I completed a total of 6 trips during the strike days, 4 long haul and 2 short haul. It is correct that the vast majority of flights were crewed by regular cabin crew - occasionally supplemented by Volunteers from around the airline including pilots.
It is probably true to say that the idea for VCC came from a pilot, the first mention of which came in a posting on the company forum entitled 'Door Operators' a thread that grew rapidly with people volunteering their services.
Watersidewonker should be cautious with his assertions and would be wise to remember it took just 3 days to train a pilot to be a CC member (an extra day if also to be a SCCM) and while operating with significantly fewer CC (8 on a 777 v 11 normally) these crews still managed to attract significantly better GPM scores than the regular crew.
BA's response to BASSA's unreasonable demands had nothing to do with 'Union Busting' regardless of what a poorly researched and badly written paper from a left wing academic may say, BA's response was the necessary steps taken by an well led management team to a very threatening situation. The fact that not only was the training system almost overwhelmed by the sheer number of volunteers from throughout the business but also the number of colleagues who supported the operation by volunteering their assistance in other areas showed that the vast majority of staff from within BA did not support BASSA and it's ridiculous demands.
The lesson here for SELPA is, be careful how you present your case. BASSA lied, misrepresented the situation and harassed it's own members to try and win the war, the result was the desertion of their members in massive numbers and utter defeat. SELPA are trying similar tactics with IBERIA, be warned you are unlikely to carry your membership with you, as with BASSA members, they will see through attempts to mis represent the true situation and you risk becoming as irrelevant to IBERIA as BASSA is to BA today.