I do agree that free markets are very rare is any civilized society.

I'm sorry EJ,

I don't know of a market that works the way you describe. A Ketchup maker has to manage his supply chain or else he'll go out of business. If he just shops for price he will before too long lose customers either due to supply or quality problems.

The issue in my mind for BA is that for the strike vote to be that definitive at this time of year, management has not managed the situation. Whether its a poor strategy by the union or not is for them to decide. I suspect that they know the situation better than you or I do. It is not up to me to assign blame. But in modern labor relations I do know that the management holds almost all the cards.

Whether its a public relations problem for the union or not is subject to debate, But I will point out that the threat of a strike has got people like us following their plight.