Air India employees on black armband protest

Mumbai, Jun 22: Air India employees, including pilots, will be wearing black armbands from tomorrow as part of their protest over delay in payment of salaries and alleged corruption in the state-run carrier.

The Joint Forum of Unions, Associations and Guilds of Air India (JFUAGAI) has decided to undertake protest from tomorrow by wearing black armbands. The forum, which has written to Union Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi about their decision, is undertaking the step to protest delay in payment of salaries and "mismanagement" in running the national carrier, he said.

The JFUAGAI is an umbrella organisation of Air India employees represented by Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG), Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA), Indian Aircraft Technicians' Association), All India Service Engineers' Association, Aviation Industry Employees' Guild, Air India Employees' Union, Air India Aircraft Engineers' Association, Airlines Radio Officers' & Flight Operations Officers' Association, Air India Cabin Crew Association and Indian Airlines Officers' Association.

ICPA, which will hold its annual general meeting here tomorrow, will pay homage to murdered journalist J Dey, as like Anna Hazare, he too fought against corruption, the JFUAGAI spokesperson "When the pilots were on strike, they had attended Hazare's protest meetings, because they see themselves as fighting corruption and mismanagement within Air India."

In a related development, ICPA General Secretary Rishabh Kapoor has been asked to stop flying aircraft. "This is because, he (Kapoor) had written to the authorities recently that non-payement of salaries to Air India pilots had resulted in a lot of stress," he said.

PTI