Air India has threatened to ground 15% of its flights if its recalcitrant employees don?t withdraw their plan to strike work from June 11 midnight. The state-owned carrier has already entered into formal arrangements with foreign as well as private domestic carriers and put in place a contingency plan to provide services, with only 85% of its fleet operating. According to an official source, Air India is fully prepared to operate with reduced capacity for a month rather than give in to the ?unjustified?? demands of its 31,000-strong unionised staff.
What would give strength to the Air India?s latest zero-tolerance approach is the recent government decision to give it a free hand to tackle employee agitation, as reported by FE on Wednesday.
?Most of the things to deal with the situation if the employees go ahead with their planned strike are in place. We would try to minimise inconvenience to passengers,? the source said.
With the hardened management stance, most feel that the union is unlikely to go ahead with the strike. Airline sources said that the management even refused to sit for negotiations with the union representatives, as it has already derecognised it as part of the disciplinary action.
?During the conciliation proceedings on Wednesday before the chief labour commissioner, the union said it will follow the path of negotiation and not agitation, given the inconvenience caused to passengers due to the strike,? another official said.
The engineers? union of erstwhile Indian Airlines had earlier served a notice to the management, saying it would go on strike from midnight of June 11. The union has demanded reinstatement of its employees who were sacked last month for resorting to strike, which led to cancellation of 132 flights, causing financial loss of Rs 12 crore and inconveniencing passengers. Though the strike was later called off, the management has decided not to take back sacked employees, besides refusing to recognise the unions involved in the agitation?Air Corporation Employees Union and All India Aircraft Engineers? Association. With accumulated losses crossing Rs 12,000 crore, Air India is facing one of the worst financial crises in its history.