Union strike call may affect IA services

Indian Airlines flights all over the country could get disrupted as the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), the largest employees union of the carrier, has threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday.

According to the employees, the decision was taken after talks between the union and the management failed.

"The management has cleared our arrears from 2000 to this date. But it has backed out on its assurance of our career progress,"said JK Badola, president, ACEU.

The employees had also asked for promotion in line with their counterparts in Air India.

Badola, however, said the union has agreed to IA's compromise formula that it would not pay arrears between 1997 and 2000 but only the amount after that. Out of total arrears of Rs 450 crore, IA has to pay over Rs 300 crore to the employees. But the talks are stuck on the management offering them a career progress.

Hopes, however, hinge on the tripartite meeting with the Indian Airlines management, the union and the chief labour commissioner on Monday, which is expected to make one more attempt to come to a solution.

An Indian Airlines spokesperson however said, "We expect to work out something through negotiations." He said IA would take a call on contingency plans only after the Monday meeting.

Airport officials said the strike could lead to a major disruption in flights. "If people like the loaders and the groundhandling personnel are not there, it would lead to delay. One delay would lead to another and it would have a cascading effect. The situation will be even worse if there it is a countrywide strike," said an airport official in Delhi .

Out of a total number of 18,000 Indian employees, the ACEU accounts for about 13,000. The members include mostly non-technical staff including groundhandling operators, traffic assistants, loaders and engineering helpers.

Talks with the management started about a month ago after the ACEU members staged a two-hour walkout demanding that their arrears be paid and they get promotions.