Air India pilots go on hunger strike

New Delhi, June 24
The agitating Air India pilots sat on indefinite hunger strike today to put pressure on the authorities concerned to accept their demands for reinstalling their 101 sacked colleagues and recognition of the Indian Pilots Guild as a trade union. Eleven AI pilots, who are at loggerheads with AI management over the move to train pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines in the merged entity on Boeing-787 Dreamliner, began their hunger strike at Jantar Mantar this morning. The strike is being led by Captain Aditya Singh Dhillon.

The AI pilots have been protesting for the last 48 days to mount pressure on the Civil Aviation Ministry to accept their demands. “Instead of accepting our demands, the ministry has sacked the 101 agitating pilots,” said Dhillon.

“Keeping aside all other issues, we are just demanding that the government should reinstate the 101 sacked pilots and restore recognition of the IPG,” he said.

The strike, which has led Air India to curtail its international long-haul flight schedule, has been declared illegal by the government and the Delhi High Court. The ailing national carrier has been operating 38 out of 45 services for over a month now.

When the pilots had refused to go on duty, the Air India a few days back advertised for hiring new pilots for long-haul operations. The agitating pilots said that ministry never approached them for discussing the demands and work out the problem. The pilots said that the ministry was trying to impose on the striking pilots the Dharmadhikari panel report which, he alleged, was completely biased.

The Dharmadhikari report deals with pay parity between Air India and Indian Airlines.