M A I N   N E W S

Flash strike hits AI operations, 45 flights cancelled
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 25
The saga of never-ending woes of national carrier Air India continued as protesting against delay in the payment of salaries and a gag order, around 12,000 employees, including engineers, went on a nationwide flash strike today, hitting the beleaguered carrier’s operations across the country.

Civil Aviation Ministry officials, however, said only a section of ground employees, numbering around 1,000, had walked out and that the management had mustered all available resources to minimise impact on scheduled operations. “While flights from the major metro cities have not been affected, there have been a few dislocations at some of the non-metro airports,” they said.

However, the situation at airports said it all. Till the filing of the report more than 45 flights, including international services, had been cancelled. There were reports of flights being cancelled from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai as engineers refused to certify aircrafts for their airworthiness. Union leaders are expected to meet the Air India CMD Arvind Jadav tomorrow in Delhi. However, they are adamant that show-cause notice issued to them for speaking to the media after the Mangalore crash is withdrawn. While the management feels speaking against the airlines, especially when it was dealing with a national crisis, was in bad taste, union leaders say the gag order was a curb on their right to speech.

“There were 4-5 issues for the strike, and the latest was a gag order issued by the management. There are 12,000 engineers and crew of Air India with us and operations are severely affected,” General Secretary of Air Corporation Employees Union Anand Prakash was quoted as saying.

Air India recently decided that the May salaries would be delayed by a week. The recent gag order asking employees not to talk to the media added fuel to the fire. Sources say the timing of the strike was well planned. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, already boxed into the corner by criticism on the Air-India Indian Airlines Merger, was on a weak wicket after the Mangalore crash. Taking moral responsibility, he had even offered to resign to the Prime Minister after the crash.