Air India flash strike had the support of management?

Mumabi:Air India insiders say the strike (the flash strike declared by the Aviation Employees Guild and called off by Tuesday midnight) and its speedy withdrawal apparently had the tacit support of the Air India management. It was meant to be a show of strength by the Guild in order to prevent the entry of the Shiv Sena’s labour arm, the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), they aver. Even the Air India management is opposed to the Sena’s expanding power base among the workforce.
Over the years, the Guild has successfully negotiated a variety of sops for its members, and thus been able to keep its flock of 8,000 out of the airline’s 15,000 employees intact. For the past few years, the Guild and its secretary, George Abraham, have been known to be very close to the Air India management, led by the chairman and managing director V Thulasidas. But dissent within the membership has been growing and a majority of the employees representing the ground services department, particularly in A-I stations outside Mumbai (South India and Delhi), are not very happy with their leadership.
The Guild had signed an agreement for wage revision with the management in 2004, which, many of its members feel, didn’t give them enough money. The situation is just right for Shiv Sena’s labour arm, the BKS, to step in.
The BKS is wooing this dissenting faction. It already has a foothold within the airline through the Air India Cabin Crew Association, a union representing the airline’s in-flight crew, that is aligned with it.
Though the general view is that the strike was a pre-emptive move so as to deal with pressure from the BKS, Guild president YE Reddy strongly denies this.
16/08/07 Economic Times, India

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Categories: Air India Aug 2007