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Air India executive pilots come out in support of striking colleagues | The crisis in national carrier Air India worsened
on Sunday with its executive pilots coming out in support of the striking pilots.
They asked the airline's management to revoke the sack orders and hold immediate
negotiations to end the six-day impasse, even as at least 20 international flights
were cancelled. The striking pilots, while stating that they were ready for talks,
showed no signs of returning to work, leaving hundreds of passengers fretting
with holiday schedules going haywire. Empathising with the demands of the Indian
Pilots Guild spearheading the agitation, the Executive Pilots' Association blamed
the Air India management for the "complete failure" of integration of the two
airlines -- Air India and Indian Airlines -- leading to the industrial relations
between management and employees "to fall to an all time low". Earlier, representatives
of the striking pilots accused the management of the debt-ridden airline of misleading
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh over their ongoing deadlock. Talking to media
in Mumbai, Captain Tausif Muqadam, Joint Secretary of the Indian Pilots Guild,
said they don't have any pre-conditions for getting back to work and want to resolve
the impasse at the earliest. "What I am only saying is that without any pre-conditions
we will go and meet the minister, so that we can lay out issues on the table,
because right now, I think, there is a misconception that perhaps the management
is not giving the clear picture to the honourable minister. You see I have full
reasons to believe that the minister is an honest man with the good intentions,
but maybe he is not getting the right information from the Air India management.
So, my only request is that please give us some time so that we can personally
discuss our issues with you and let you know what the issues are," said Muqadam.
General Secretary of Indian Pilots Guild, E. A. Kapadia said the pilots were bearing
the brunt of management's apathy, and blamed the latter from preventing the government
from coming forward for discussions. "We are kind of in the state of limbo at
the moment. We are willing to talk to them but they are not willing to talk to
us. The thing is that we are saying that we are willing over here, minister saying
they are willing over there but finally two have to meet, then only talks can
happen. Simply giving in the media does automatically result in us talking to
each other," said Kapadia. Kapadia further said they were forced to agitate as
they were tired of putting forward their pleas to the management without results.
"What they have resolved it to over a period of time is just ad hoc decisions
depending upon which union, which group or which category is making the maximum
noise or the maximum problems. They would just ad hoc decide ok, give something
to this person or don't give something to that person. There has been no structured
or professional approach to the whole problem," added Kapadia. Captain Chaya,
a member of Indian Pilots Guild apologised for the inconvenience caused to passengers,
but added that the pilots were fighting for their rights and livelihood. "I would
like to offer most heart felt apologies to the public for this terrible inconvenience
that this has caused. I would also like to reiterate that we have been flying
our esteemed passengers for the past number of years, in spite of not having received
salaries for nearly five months, absolutely no leave for nearly five years and
at present out careers are on the chopping block," she said. "We will continue
fly in the public's interest. However, this agitation is our last try for help
against the utter chaos and mismanagement that is going on in Air India at the
moment," she added. About 500 Air India pilots who fly international routes have
been demanding their colleagues from former state-owned partner Indian Airlines
should not be trained to fly Dreamliners, as it may hurt the career prospects
of original Air India staff. The two companies were merged in 2007 but there have
been problems with integration. Air India 's purchase of Dreamliners was also
criticised by a central auditor last year for "imposing an undue long-term financial
burden".
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