Wiggy
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.
I believe that is indeed correct. The problem now is that no matter how much money BALPA throw at their legal advice, they will never trust that it is rock solid and therefore they will never again challenge BA head on. All they can do is tweak agreements to the extent that the company allows them to. Any negotiating body could do that. On a local level; one of my friends was sacked for something he did not do. He was a BALPA member and received very poor advice from the union which ultimately cost an innocent man his job.