Air India pilots still on strike, ready to go to jail
April 29th, 2011 - 10:25 pm ICT by ANIMumbai, Apr 29(ANI): With the Air India pilots’ strike set to entering its fourth day, the Indian Commercial Pilot Associations (ICPA) on Friday said that the agitating pilots will continue their strike and are willing to go the jail.
“We are more than willing to go jail. Nearly 31,000 Air India employees will also be ready to court arrest because we are serious about saving the national carrier from ruin,” ICPA General Secretary Captain Rishabh Kapoor said.
Earlier in the day, in a setback to the pilots, the Delhi High Court had refused to stay Air India management order derecognising ICPA.
The court, however, said that derecognition will not come in the way of any dialogue between the management and the striking pilot’s body.
Refusing to accede to ICPA’s plea to revoke its derecognition, Justice S Murlidhar issued notice to Air India Ltd and sought its response on the plea by the pilots’ body by July 16.
The management of the airline had said on Thursday it will not surrender to the pilots’ pressure and added that no domestic flight bookings will be accepted till May 3.
The Air India management had sacked seven pilots belonging to the Commercial Pilots Association.
Among those whose services have been terminated are ICPA President Captain Ashim Bhinder and General Secretary Captain Rishabh Kapoor.
The management also sealed ICPA’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai.
The ICPA has about 700 members who use to work for Indian Airlines till it was merged with Air India in 2007.
The ICPA claims that while Air India pilots enjoy a huge fixed salary component, the same is almost minuscule for former IA pilots in 2007.
The association claims that while their entire pay package depends on the hours they fly every day, the airline has been curtailing the number of flights by 30 to 40 percent. (ANI)
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Tags: air india, ashim, commercial pilot, commercial pilots, delhi high court, dialogue, domestic flight, flight bookings, general secretary, icpa, india ltd, indian airlines, national carrier, pilot associations, pilots association, pilots body, plea, rishabh, ruin, setback