G-Fiend, very good points.
To everyone else out there with opinions on following the letter of the law with regard to striking, the whole point would have been lost if this was a planned operation. BA and its pax have been monumentally screwed by a rightly disgruntled workforce.
It is not just one or two workers who have planned this - all T1 groundstaff have joined in, their strength now is in their unity. If what is being said is true then standing up now will protect them from the kind of work schedule BA has in store. How on earth can you expect staff to come in on off days when its busy, and go home early on quiet days, taking the necessary drop in wages. This is no way to treat staff in any industry, and do not bring up 9/11, SARS and the Iraq conflict as any form of justification.
All eyes in the industry is on BA now. Swissport are trying to push through a similar scheme and they will undoubtably be watching what is happening now.
What BA are doing is standing up for themselves, showing the management what they are doing is fundamentally wrong. If this was done legally through the unions, the affect would have been less and the point not properly made. Management would then have pursued this and they would have been screwed. Even now, the outcome is not fully assured, but the staff have shown they are strong and BA need to decie whether to really pee them off more by proceeding with this dastardly plan.
Well Done BA staff. Other airline handling staff and airline ground staff are with you.
Stick together and be strong.