Not quite...
Hand, I take your points, but you misunderstand slightly. My suggestion of a regional pay scale is to keep the BACX guys on what they are on at the moment - not reducing their wages. The suggestion is only there so that we can be realistic, and then negotiate in the future. BA will not increase the BACX scales up to the BA scales, so it will never happen. (If they would, then great, for all of us!). I have not fallen for the 'crew wages to blame' as it plainly isn't true. What I would like to see if all of us on the same wage, regardless of what we fly (as essentially it is the same job), however realistically that isn't going to happen.
The rumours in BACX were that BAR was not profitable and that when added to the BACX fleet the profitable Manx, BRAL and Brymon became unprofitable. Whatever the truth is (and it depends on which accountant you ask) is again immaterial. The complaints when RJ crews wanted to stay/go were because there were two different workforces involved. There would be no 'f*****g off back to Heathrow' as you put it, if we were all the same workforce. Basically, BACX guys saw the BA guys as 'taking' there jobs, much the same way as the BA guys see operations by BACX out of Gatwick as 'taking' their jobs.
We can get rid of all this rubbish of them and us by making all of us into one 'us'. It makes things cheaper, makes people happier, makes the company more profitable and more flexible, and what is more, everyone is a winner. Stay regional if you want or go longhaul, or somewhere inbetween.