New Delhi: Pilots of Air India (AI) stayed away from work for the seventh day, the longest by a pilots’ union of the airline in more than a decade even as the government maintained that talks could start only when the strike is called off.
Some 840 pilots of Indian Commercial Pilots Association (Icpa) and executive pilots, nearly half the airline’s pilot workforce, have been on strike since last Tuesday, demanding an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into how Air India ran up a debt of $8 billion (Rs. 35,440 crore) in four years.
The pilots, who used to work for Indian Airlines before 2007, also want parity in wages, promised when the government decided to merge the state-owned airline with another state-owned airline Air India.
Air India said nine out of every 10 flights it operates within the country have been cancelled, even as the striking pilots continued to defy the Delhi high court’s order asking them to return to work.
A heated hearing in the court cooled off with an adjournment to Tuesday, after hard bargaining between the bench and counsels for Air India and the striking pilots failed to result in any settlement.
The pilots are continuing their strike in defiance of an order from justice Gita Mittal issued last week asking them to return to work in “larger public interest”.
Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Veena Birbal tolerated much drama as the airline’s management and the pilots’ union attempted several permutations for a result inside and outside the court. Although the court repeatedly asked for the pilots to call off the strike, it did not issue contempt notices on Monday.
02/05/11 Nikhil Kanekal & Tarun Shukla/Live Mint
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