Will a strike benefit AI and everyone?
Air India's losses have mounted over
the last week. Now it is making a loss of Rs 15 crore per day, up from the earlier
Rs 11 crore. This would translate into an annual loss of Rs 5,100 crore. Faced
with the situation, Air India chairman Arvind Jadhav is lobbying the
powers-that-be in New Delhi with a begging bowl. He wants soft loans and equity
infusion into Air India from the government.
He tried to defer the salary
payments of staffers by 15 days and suggested that senior staffers skip the
salary for June. This because the national carrier has no money at all. But his
initiative has been met with a strike threat. The "bada babus" of the
government have promised all they can for the national carrier, although they
know they can't do anything because the goverment is strapped for funds.
Anyway, infusing money into Air India will be like sending good money to chase
bad money.
It is clear that emergency measures
should be taken to stem the rot in the present phase as the aviation sector all
over the world is passing through an acute slowdow. Trying to sell Air India in
the short run will be like a distress sale that will fetch publicity but little
money. There will be no serious bidders for the airline, not even for its famed
building at Nariman Point in Mumbai.
About unions, the less said the
better. In what is a paradox 100 employees who are union bearers of the cabin
crew and ground staff union are officially exempt from doing work. Air India
pays them their salaries and, what is more, even their flying allowances. The
airline also pays for maintenance and upkeep of their union offices. As if Air
India is a charitable trust!
As Air India is a 100% GOI-owned
company, all its losses are being funded by the tax payers' money. That is your
and my money. This must immediately stop.
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