Govt takes strikers head on

Call off stir by Wednesday evening or face music, Indian union told.

Even as 62 (over 32 per cent) of Indian Airlines's 192 flights were cancelled and many delayed today, leaving 6,000-8,000 passengers in the lurch, the government decided to take a tough stand against the flash strike called by the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), directing it to call it off by evening or face drastic action.

The latter includes withdrawing arrears of Rs 267 crore that the management had agreed to pay the staff and possibly declaring a lock-out.

Condemning the strikes as "unwarranted and illegal", Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said at a hurriedly convened press conference that the management would wait till evening for the union to call off the strike. The management has already suspended 27 employee members of the union.

However, the ACEU, which represents over 12,000 of IA's 18,000 employees, was not ready to relent. Said J K Badola, president of the union, "We will go ahead with the strike even if arrears are cancelled and the government takes any other stringent action".

The Delhi High court tonight held the strike by Indian workers as prima facie illegal. Justice J P Singh directed that no demonstration be held within a 200-m radius of the airport.

According to TV reports, union members, in response to a letter from the chief labour commissioner, have decided to meet him tomorrow. The management will also be present at the meeting.

Caught in the midst of the holiday season, commuters in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata were especially hard hit with huge delays and cancellations.

In Mumbai, 11 out of 25 flights were grounded, in Kolkata nine out of 10 and in Delhi six out of 30 did not fly till noon, according to IA officials.

As a contingency measure, IA has roped in staff from Air-India and IA officials to make up for the shortage. IA has also made it clear that it will go in for a "no work no pay" option for striking employees.

The minister said that the strike was called at a time when talks were at an advanced stage. The ACEU had asked for payment of arrears worth Rs 450 crore which have been pending from 1997 and career progression for its members.

While the arrears had been settled at Rs 267 crore, the bone of contention was career progression, an issue the ACEU said the management had backed out of.

The minister, however, said they had also agreed to the union's demands for career progression. Patel said that despite the IA being a loss-making public sector company (with accumulated losses of Rs 1,072 crore), the management had agreed to pay arrears.

The union has also demanded promotions in line with their Air-India counterparts. Airline officials, however, said the demand is illogical since the hierarchy, selection criteria and career progression norms for employees of the two airlines are very different.

Rivals make hay, load factor rises

For Indian Airlines's competitors, the strike has been a bonanza. Both Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines have seen their passenger load factor (PLF) go up by over 5 per cent.

Says a senior executive of Jet Airways, "As a result of the strike we have seen our normal PLF go up by around 5 per cent. There is a massive rush to get tickets on Jet. However, our flights have been on schedule."

Travel agents are also facing a rush. Raj Kachru, who handles domestic travel at Delhi-based Swift Travels says, "Many passengers are opting for Kingfisher and Jet flights and it is difficult to get a seat on them on many key routes like Delhi-Mumbai. Also, passengers who had booked earlier at special rates have to fork out an extra Rs 2,000 for, say, a Delhi-Mumbai ticket."