It is worth noting that when a Cabin Crew member, Flight Crew member or any other individual that travels for purposes of employment and receives meal allowances for the time they are away at their employers behest, goes to a bank for a mortgage, the bank will exclude any down route meal allowances from their gross salary calculation, and this typically (and correctly) means they have to reduce their declared salary by 6-8K per annum. Some airlines (in agreement with HMRC) will not even show these allowances on a payslip as it is agreed by all parties (unions, employers and HMRC) that meal allowances are not part of your salary as it is spent down route on meals etc.
So BA's claim that all MF crew received over £21K in the last year is a little disingenuous. New entrant basic salary is around £13K. They “might” qualify for a small quarterly bonus totalling another £1K. They do the job because they like it and are generally very good at it. The BA brand is attractive to customers and employees alike and they all want it protected and enhanced. You cannot denounce a group of people for wanting to improve things or simply just asking for a fair days pay, for a fair days work. Currently BA are just not paying this staff group fairly. I haven't even looked at their rostering practices yet, but I hear they are not very fair either!
I think this dispute, as always, will turn into a battle of words and wills, just like the last one. And yes, perhaps BASSA did not cover themselves in glory back then, but but neither did BA. I would also argue that BA never ever play with a straight bat, and I would believe unite over BA any day! The claims by BA that all planned flights were flown, no CSM was on strike, 70% of MF crew turned up for work and MF crew all take home over £21K, can ALL BE PROVED FALSE with a little digging. I do wonder why unite are not (to my knowledge) highlighting these untruths to the media, but perhaps they are just concentrating on making sure their members are aware of the facts and not worrying to much about public opinion, as strikers are almost always seen as wrong in the eye of the great British public.
The big question is; how long before we see Mixed Fleet Unite and BASSA "really" working together. And I don't mean onboard the aircraft.