It's bad, bad news.

From the ALPA newsline:

On Thursday, June 19, OpenSkies, British Airways’ alter-ego airline, will launch its first flight. The OpenSkies flight, from Paris-Orly to New York John F. Kennedy Int’l, will use BA aircraft and the BA brand, but will not be using BA pilots.

OpenSkies is the first alter-ego challenge for European pilots following the first-stage US/EU Open Skies agreement. The fact that OpenSkies is flying without BA pilots means that the hard-earned benefits contractually negotiated by those who have invested the most in their airline—its pilots—could be lost.

The British Airways Airline Pilots Association (BALPA), which voted overwhelmingly for industrial action over this issue in February, has announced that it is seeking to change EU law to clarify that Article 43 of the Treaty of Rome cannot be used by British Airways to prevent its pilots from taking industrial action—including the possibility of going on strike.

In June of this year, ALPA pilots conducted informational picketing at international airports in the U.S. to show their support for their brothers and sisters across the Atlantic. ALPA is fully engaged in participating in the Second Stage talks between the European Union and the United States.