People's Democracy

Airlines Employees Adopt Campaign Declaration

P R Krishnan

IT is now the tenth year since the last settlement governing the service conditions of the Indian Airlines employees came to an end. But the management goes on keeping mum in so far as revision of the pay scales, carrier progression and other service conditions of the employees are concerned. And at the same time the workload goes on increasing and the Airlines staff are compelled to bear it. However, there is no restriction whatsoever for the top brass of the Airline management and bureaucratic. They go on enjoying unrestricted facilities and higher remunerations. 

The question is: How long are the employees to tolerate this? That question has now been resolved in a seminar held by the employees in Mumbai on October 14. In the declaration issued from the seminar, the employees have adopted a 9 points charter for nationwide campaign so as to make the management concede to their long pending demands. 

It was an all-India seminar held in the Ideal School Complex Hall, situated in the midst of the employees’ quarters at Kalina in northeast Mumbai, in which the said declaration was adopted. The seminar was organised under the banner of Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), Mumbai Region. “Future of India Airlines” was the title for discussion, and the seminar was attended by 225 delegates from different airports and regions. CITU president Dr M K Pandhe and general secretary Chittabrata Majumdar were special invitees to the seminar. They were the main speakers as well, on the occasion.
Apart from the main issue of settlement of the long pending charter of demands, the worrisome topic for discussion among the delegates was the impending amalgamation or merger of the Air India and Indian Airlines. Though both these establishments are instruments of the state in the public sector, the service conditions therein are different. The question agitating the employees in the seminar was: What will happen to their existing service conditions after the merger? Will there be different service condition or common ones?

The seminar proceedings were conducted by a presidium comprising Naresh Lal and Ram Palav (Mumbai) and Basudeo Chaudhary (Kolkata). Ram Palav, chairman of the Air Corporation Employees Union, welcomed the dignitaries and delegates. A T Raj, regional general secretary of the ACEU presented, a background paper which detailed the history of the airline industry and the issues, problems and demands of the Air Corporation Employees. M K Pandhe inaugurated the seminar. 

In his speech, Pandhe said there was no justification for the Airlines management sitting idle and not starting negotiations with representatives of the unions on their charter of demands. He said this attitude of the aviation ministry and the Airport Authority of India has to change. For that, he wanted the entire workforce in this industry, in all airports and regions, to unite. Only through united campaigns and agitations would the government and its bureaucracy come around. 

Pandhe said he has already written letters to all the unions in Indian Airlines and Air India emphasising the need for united campaign to force the managements for a settlement. He said the Indian Airlines once had the monopoly in civil aviation. But the picture has changed due to liberalisation and its value in the share market has gone down. The civil aviation minister is an industrialist and all his policies have been in favour of industrialists and employers. That is why he has started the process of privatisation. The minister claims it is to make competition effective. But we are not against competition, Pandhe said, adding that certainly we are against handing over the aviation industry to private capital.

Pandhe asked whether the government has made any investigation about the funding of private airlines in the country. He said several private airlines are operating in the country on black money. He cited the former civil aviation minister Sarad Yadav’s statement that the Jet Airways are running their business with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s money. Pandhe called for a thorough inquiry not only of Jet Airways operations abut also of the other 6 private airlines in the aviation industry. 
Pandhe next said the government is bent upon completing the schedule of amalgamation. Representatives of the employees unions should therefore meet the government in a delegation, seeking clarification regarding the service conditions of employees after the merger. The civil aviation ministry is aware of the fact that despite a so-called loss, the Steel Authority of India settled the demands of the employees. The civil aviation ministry should also know the fact that the government of India has long back accepted the principle of workers’ participation in management. More, this promise is included in the constitution’s directive principles for the governance of the country. This was brought into the constitution by an amendment far back, when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister. This is article 43A of the constitution, which the minister should know. For the minister’s knowledge, Pandhe quoted this article as under:

“Participation of workers in management of industries – The state shall take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way, to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings, establishments or other organisations engaged in any industry.”

The government should therefore not waste any further time in settling the demands, said Pandhe.

In his speech, CITU general secretary Chittabrata Majumdar roundly criticised the UPA government policy towards the labour. He particularly took the civil aviation ministry and the Airport Authority of India to task and asked why the ministry was showing no interest in settling the staff demands while it was so enthusiastic about bringing private agencies into this premier industry at the cost of the public sector. 

Majumdar was also firm in his observation that the so-called loss the aviation minister is trying to project as the reason for privatisation, could convince none. This key sector is very much interlinked to the country’s security. The loss, if any, cannot in any way be attributed to the airlines staff and workers. The loss is mainly due to the additional consumption of petrol on account of reckless modernisation by private agencies and their middlemen. Majumdar said it was the management of Air India, Indian Airlines and the civil aviation ministry that are responsible for such a sorry state of affairs, and not the employees. The minister is not interested in preventing this national wastage. But workers were certainly concerned about the loss and therefore they were and are opposing privatisation. 

The Left parties’ MPs should, said Chittabrata Majumdar, prevent the disinvestment of this key public sector industry through their effective intervention in parliament. He then drew the attention of the delegates to NALCO and Neyveli Lignite Corporation. He said there are a number of unions in both NALCO and Neyvely Corporation. Yet they came together in national interest and waged united struggle to stop privatisation. The Left MPs also took up this issue and vehemently opposed its privatisation in parliament. By such united actions we could successfully stop the attempt of the UPA government of privatising these public sector industries and could save them in the national interest. Majumdar said he was citing these examples to bring to the attention of airport employees the point that there is necessity for them to have united campaign and actions. He hoped this national seminar would go a long way in cementing the unity of airport employees and enable them to launch united actions to force the authorities to settle their demands. We are here to give the airport employees our full support, said Majumdar.

R Ramanathan, a former general secretary of Air Corporation Employees Union, was a special invitee at the seminar. While greeting the seminar’s participants, Ramanathan stressed the need that the employees’ unions should undertake a vigorous campaign to force the management to settle their long pending demands.

Others who spoke in the seminar were Y K Singh (a representative of Indian Commercial Pilots Association), Kalpana Deshpande (senior air hostess), Tappan Kumar Pathak (Kolkata), Parthasaraty (chairman, ACUE, southern region), Y K Sharma (ex-general secretary, ACEU), J B Kadian (Delhi), D K Shetty (treasurer, ACEU, Mumbai), B N Nagre (secretary, SC/ST Association), and Surjeet Das and Rana Deep (Kolkata). Balaji Moorthy read out a paper on behalf of the ACEU’s general secretary Arun Kumar. Gajanand Kirtikar, a Shiva Sena MLA, also greeted the seminar. 

After the daylong interactions and discussions, the conference adopted a declaration containing a 9-points charter on which the unions in the airlines will now start united campaigns. On behalf of the presidium, ACEU vice president Naresh Lal appealed to the delegates to propagate the declaration adopted in the seminar at all airline stations and campaign for unity and struggle. Vivek Rao proposed a vote of thanks.