GS
There's a risk of continuing the drift but nevertheless I think this is worth briefly persuing on this recruitment thread since I've seen optimistic claims elsewhere about why people should join BA because of BALPA's strong influence on the company.
TBH at a strategic level (often at company council and certainly above) these days I think BALPA in all it's forms is struggling to counter the lobbying power/spend of the industry. OTOH a local level I've always found most of the individual reps in BA to be very very good at helping sorting out difficulties, even if it means ruffling a few feathers with those in the office.
Re Openskies
they had...... rock solid legal advice.
As I heard it that was the nub of BALPAs problem. they thought they had - it turned out they didn't, but we never found out all the gory details.