50,000 airline employees plan all-India trade union

Mumbai: Fresh from the success of two strikes by pilots of Jet Airways and Air India, the country’s 50,000 airline employees plans to form a nation-wide trade union that will represent pilots, engineers, maintenance staff, cabin crew and ground handling staff.
The proposal, put forward by the trade unions of Air India and Jet Airways, is expected to elicit good response from the airline staff who face job losses and salary cuts, with the domestic airline industry troubled by losses looking to cut employee costs. Frequent cuts in fares due to cut-throat competition and high fuel prices have seen the industry’s accumulated losses mounting to around Rs 10,000 crore at the end of the last financial year.
“Discussions are already on. We will meet pilots from other airlines to form a national union soon,” said Captain Girish Kaushik, president of National Aviators Guild (NAG) that represents more than 650 pilots of Jet Airways, the country’s largest airline by passenger numbers.
The country’s airlines employ about 2,500 pilots. Almost all pilots with Air India and more than half of those with other airlines are expected join the proposed national union.
10/10/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2009