On top of using the centenary weekend in an effective but not unreasonable way: announce strike dates because of the publicity, but not actually ruin "the party". I was also struck by the fact that the gap between 10 September and 27 September was a few days over the two-week period. In an industrial dispute, you can't be timid if you want to get somewhere, but I agree that even so, BALPA has been acting as reasonably as you would expect a union of professionals to act.