Eight Air India unions threaten strike from April 2, international flights could be hit

Negotiations over unpaid salaries between an Air India pilots' union and the airline’s management in Mumbai on Wednesday have failed.

This could affect international flights as these pilots were earlier with Air India, when international and domestic flights operated separately. The domestic unit earlier flew under the Indian Airlines brand.

Representatives from eight other unions are scheduled to meet with the aviation secretary and Air India management in New Delhi on Thursday.

The group of eight unions says that employees have not been paid for four months and on Wednesday wrote to the Prime Minister seeking his “urgent intervention” in releasing salaries to employees, failing which they will strike work beginning April 2.

The strike will likely affect Air India's international flights.

“We … appeal to you for your kind and urgent intervention to resolve the situation and appeal to you for justice,” the Joint Forum of Guilds/Unions/Associations of Air India said in a letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.

The Forum includes the Indian Pilots Guild, Air India Aircraft Engineers Association, Air India Engineers Association, All India Service Engineers Association, Air India Employees Union, Air Corporation Employees Union, Air India Officers Union and Air India Cabin Crew Association, representing almost all classes of Air India’s 33,000 employees.

A majority of employees have expressed their inability to work from April 2 due to non-payment of salaries over several months, the Forum claimed.

“Due to non-payment of wages for an extended time period, the employees are unable to meet their financial commitments and family responsibilities,” the letter said, pointing out that a significant number of them came from “humble background and modest means”.

The letter also pointedly said that “unlike Air India, which can turn to the central government for funds, employees have no such option”.

“The respective employees and their families alone have to suffer the humiliation of loan defaults and ensuing stress,” it added.

Noting that employees have been working and enduring hardship for the past year, the letter claimed that they are “no longer able to bear this agony, which has been thrust upon them for no fault of theirs”.

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Five railway unions write to PM in support of Dinesh Trivedi

New Delhi:  His party, the Trinamool Congress, may not want him as the Railways Minister anymore but Dinesh Trivedi has found some much-needed backing from the behemoth that he is currently in charge of. Five railway unions have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing support for Mr Trivedi, urging him to "not allow the politicisation of the Indian Railways".

The unions have, in their letter, threatened to agitate if there is a rollback in hike in passenger fares. The rise in fares, which was announced in the Railways Budget presented by Mr Trivedi on Wednesday, had triggered a political storm with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee throwing a fit. But this time, it wasn't the Congress but her own party man Mr Trivedi, who was at the receiving end of her anger. Ms Banerjee promptly shot off a letter to the Prime Minister, demanding Mr Trivedi's immediate removal as the Railways Minister. That was not all. She also asked all her leaders to go their respective constituencies to explain the "betrayal" by Mr Trivedi. Her party also wants the government the reverse the rise in fares.  

The unions, though, have made it clear that a rollback isn't acceptable to them if it is not met with a corresponding increase in support from the government exchequer. Mr Trivedi, who is facing flak from the Trinamool, has justified his decision to increase fares as one that would help raise funds for the development and modernisation of Railways. "If you roll back the fares, you have to roll back safety too," he has said. The fare hike he has announced is nominal - two paise per km for the cheapest tickets and 30 paise per kilometre for the most expensive ones.

Mamata Banerjee has already sounded out the government that she isn't willing to wait any further for Mr Trivedi's removal, reflecting in her announcement of the minister's replacement, Mukul Roy. "Mukul Roy will be next Railways Minister. He has been a Trinamool MP for six years already. He has been re-nominated to the Rajya Sabha this time. He is a good worker. Now the government will have to decide," she said in Kolkata today. With her party bringing in 19 crucial MPs to the table, the Congress which heads the UPA coalition, is also avoiding a fresh confrontation with Ms Banerjee and a resultant deterioration of the already-strained ties with her party. Dinesh Trivedi, who has defiantly stayed on as the Railways Minister so far, today made it clear that he would step down only in the event of Ms Banerjee putting down her order in writing. "Till the time the matter is absolutely clear, I have suggested I do not want to take anything verbal. For me, Parliament has more sanctity than anything. So, I suggested let Mamata write me a letter so that there is no confusion...I will perform my duty as a Railway Minister," Mr Trivedi told reporters in New Delhi today. (Read: Dinesh Trivedi wants marching orders in writing from Mamata) With the railway unions rallying around him, the beleaguered minister may finally have some hope.

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