Sabena was in debt for whatever reason. Sabena staff went on strike. Sabena collapsed.
BA is in debt (around £5billion at the last count). BA engineers are now threatening to strike. BA is immune to market forces.
The 18% that BA pilots achieved was such a good deal that over 1000 BA pilots needed pay protection to avoid losing any money. Unlike many they almost unanimously voted to accept the deal because it was a massive restructuring which the company wanted and was beneficial to all long term. Oh, and by the way pilots didn't threaten to strike for it either.