Air India pilots stick to strike threat

Air India pilots today renewed their threat to go on strike from November 24, if their demands for incentives and allowances were not met in the next five days.

"The ICPA will not withdraw its strike call on November 24 unless all its demands are met by November 10," a resolution adopted by the Central Committee of the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) said.

After their meeting in Chennai, ICPA sources said: "Even if the government clears our three month dues (allowances), we are not going to relent. We want the government to implement all the pending demands".

The meeting, attended by the representatives from all four regions of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, resolved to pursue their demands which include payment of pending allowances since August, bringing their salary structure on par with Air India pilots, implementation of wage agreement, exploring avenues for enhancing revenue other than wage cuts and implementation of their suggestions on cost-cutting.

The ICPA claims representing 880 pilots of the erswthile Indian Airlines, who are part of the merged airline's 1250-strong pilot strength, barring trainees and expats.

ICPA on Nov 1 had shot off a letter to AI CMD Arvind Jadhav, blaming the management for its "repeated failure" to address their grievances and threatening a strike from November 24 if their demands were not met by November 10.

Earlier in September, about 400 Air India pilots had gone on mass  sick leave for four days to protest pay cuts, resulting in  more than 200 flights being cancelled.