MUMBAI: The hunger protest by the pilots of Air India (AI) entered its sixth day on Friday. The pilots have been on strike for more than 50 days now, making it the longest running pilots' strike in the last 40 years. They went on strike on May 8 to protest against the airline's decision to train the erstwhile Indian Airlines (IC) pilots for the soon-to-be inducted Dreamliner aircraft.
The union of the AI pilots, Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) was derecognised by the airline when they went on strike.
On Wednesday, the members of the derecognised unions released a press note saying that the strike is the longest strike in the last 40 years. In 1993, pilots of IC had gone on strike and the airline had adopted the same indifferent approach. To replace the pilots, the airline recruited more pilots from Uzbekistan airways. ""On January 1993, the leased Tupolev Tu154 aircraft crashed at Delhi airport while landing in foggy conditions. That aircraft and a few others were wet-leased from Uzbekistan airlines, in order to break the strike. However, the plane crashed while landing in Delhi. The reason, air traffic control (ATC) said was the error in communication,"" said an airline official.
The airline, then, started dialogue with the pilots on strike and they were back to work in a week. ""This means that if the airline wants, it can open dialogue with the pilots. The idea is to resolve differences, improve working conditions and service more passengers,"" an airline official said.
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
