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Aviation workers in India promise strike action over sackings
26 August 2009
Workers at an Indian airline have pledged to take strike action to defend two colleagues who were sacked following their involvement with a newly formed pilots’ union.
Jet Airways pilots are to take indefinite strike action in India on 7 September if D Balaraman and Sam Thomas are not reinstated. Balaraman and Thomas are respectively the general secretary and joint secretary of the National Aviators’ Guild (NAG), which was set up in June and registered in July. Shortly after the NAG’s registration, the pilots received letters of dismissal, stating that their services were no longer required. It has been reported that management gave no reasons for the dismissals, nor did it follow proper legal procedures.
The NAG, a member of the ITF-affiliated Aviation Industry Employees' Guild, represents 600 of the 750 Jet Airways pilots. This is the first time since the company’s establishment in 1993 that workers have been represented by a union.
In a letter dated 26 August, ITF general secretary David Cockroft warned Jet Airways’ chief executive officer Wolfgang Prock-Schauer that the actions taken against the pilots were illegal. They contravened not just Indian law, but also international freedom of association conventions.
He said: “We consider this to be a highly provocative anti-union course of action” and demanded the immediate reinstatement of the workers.
Jet Airways is India’s third largest airline and currently operates a fleet of 84 aircraft.
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