I wonder how the passengers would fare if the ground staff all resigned? If they're on 1 weeks notice, that would be a real killer for BA. One thing you can't get away from is that there doesn't appear to have been any attempt by management to mitigate the situation by rolling their sleeves up and getting there in front of the customers - or unloading baggage.
Which maybe suggests that they are in favour of getting maximum disruption, possibly to get sympathy from the travellers for management.