Jet Airways Pilots Strike
 

Jet Airways had to cancle more than 150 flights owing to their more than 360 pilots calling in sick. The pilots are supposed to be on sick call tomorrow as well.

Two of the Jet Airways pilots were fired for forming a unioin and three more pilots were sacked today as they refused to be examined by company doctors at their homes.

Pilots on mass leave: 130 Jet Airways flights cancelled - India Business - Business - NEWS - The Times of India

What's the primary reason for the strike?
bpp

Read the link above and it will tell you :rolleyes:

In support of two pilots sacked a couple of months ago for joining a guild wich is tantamount to a union.

3 more pilots sacked today . . . as protest intensifies . . .

Jet sacks 3 more pilots, protests to intensify

Good Luck to the Colleagues at Air India who stand against union busting. Hope the expats are civilized enough not to aid management.

Thanks captjns, couldn't get the link to open.
bpp

From what I hear these guys do get looked after far better than some of us over here in the UK, despite that to simply lose your job for starting a Union/Association is ridiculous. Must say it is certainly emboldening to see a few pilots with large cojones standing tall against tyrants :ok:

Timing
 

It must be considered: with the airline barely aloft amidst the worst crysis in the industry history, the idea of creating an union, a good thing by itself, but it's at the wrong time, wrong place and by the wrong people...

It's very likely that their terrible mistake will kill their company and jobs.
It happened many times in the past and seems that nobody learn the lesson.
Hopefully they realize this before is too late.:ugh:

if im not mistaken, jet airways and kingfisher merged a short while ago. from what ive heard the pilots in KF are not very happy so i wonder how this will transpire with them. i understand that they agreed to codeshare as well as cross crew along with using the same ground handeling agents.

i cant seem to get either of the two links to open so can one of you guys to do a copy and paste job? thanks!

this is the link extracted from the Indian Times.

NEW DELHI: At least 130 flights of Jet Airways were on Tuesday cancelled from the four major metros after a large chunk of pilots failed to report for work protesting against sacking of two of their colleagues, a step termed as "sabotage of operations" by the airlines.

Passengers in Mumbai were the worst hit with 115 flights out of the total 345 failing to take off while at least 10 flights of Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite were cancelled in Delhi. In Chennai, six flights were cancelled, including three international, and four in Kolkata.

However, the morning flight of the private carrier from Kolkata for Dhaka took off as scheduled, Jet Airways officials said.

Hit by the crisis, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal met civil aviation secretary Madhavan Nambiar on Tuesday morning for about half-an-hour and is understood to have discussed the situation.

Ministry officials said the government was closely monitoring the situation.

Jet Airways in a press statement said that a section of the pilots have resorted to a "simulated strike by reporting sick".

"This organised activity is a planned sabotage of operations that will damage the airline's operations and inconvenience the travelling public," it said.

Jet Airways said all affected guests can get a full refund or rebook themselves on an alternate date without any cancellation or reissue charges, but passengers were not amused.

"The least the airline people could have done is informed me that my flight was being cancelled," complained VS Sharma who was to fly to Mumbai from Delhi. "I could have made alternative arrangements. Really, this is very, very bizarre."

The pilots have been demanding the reinstatement of two of their colleagues, who were sacked recently. The airline has some 700 pilots on its rolls.

"Regrettably, a section of the pilots who were rostered for operations have resorted to a simulated strike by reporting sick," a Jet Airways spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday morning.

"Jet Airways is taking all steps to minimise the inconvenience to its guests. The airline will make all efforts to operate the maximum number of flights," the statement said.

"However, perforce, some flights may have to be combined or cancelled; we will try to accommodate our guests on alternate flights."

The newly formed National Aviators Guild, a union of some Jet Airways pilots, has called the strike. They are protesting the sacking of two of their colleagues earlier this month. The airline has declined to recognise this union.

Girish Kaushik, the president of the guild, said they had issued the mandatory 14-day notice to the airline, adding the sacking of the two pilots was an act of vendetta for starting a new union and totally unjustified.

The two sacked senior pilots, Balaraman and Sam Thomas, were told of their termination by e-mail. The pilots claim that they were given the pink slip as they were instrumental in forming the new union.

"My sincere apologies to passengers. All we want is that the management takes the two pilots back. That is our only demand," Kaushik said. "We are not on strike. This is an individual decision by each pilot," Kaushik said.

Jet Airways said it has had been in conciliatory talks with the union and the regional labour commissioner had warned that any strike during this period would be deemed illegal as per the Industrial Disputes Act.

Every management gets the workforce they deserve.

Indian mergers
 

"if im not mistaken, jet airways and kingfisher merged a short while ago."

Both airlines were involved in mergers - but not with each other; Jet acquired Sahara, which became Jet's low cost subsidiary, JetLite. Kingfisher merged with Air Deccan, which was a low cost carrier.

I may be naive in saying this, but is there not Indian legislation covering this? I recall that Air India FEs went on strike a few years back and there were not dismissals (although I appreciate that AI is a state owned company). Surely, even if there is not legislation, Jet must realise that it cannot behave in this way and that the further sackings only exacerbates the situation, rather than bringing it to a conclusion. Good luck to the 9W pilots in getting through this, but it's sad that this can happen in a democracy in this day and age.

Sad as it is to see 2 pilots and now more sacked. I suspect it will have only one sad ending.

Jet are determined they will not be lumbered with a unionised work force.

Then comes the oldest management trick in the book. Divide and rule.

As the days goes by more and more pilots will break ranks and return to work. The management want to downsize so they need to get rid of crews. When enough pilots trickle back to work, the management will draw a line that day and say all those at work today will keep their jobs. The rest out.

The remaining crews will be a more manageable work force to contend with. The Kraut CEO did say there would be a solution in the next few days, so I suspect this is what he has in mind.

[QUOTE]Every management gets the workforce they deserve./QUOTE]


Now, that is a fact!!:ok:


Cheers
Colocolo

Well, I think it will come down to the unity amongst the pilots. If they are united then the management might have to agree to their demands.


Action against 5 more pilots.

fullstory

......Then..... when, where and who?

Thanks in advance.

Colocolo:confused:

A previous link giving an objective view was deleted by the MODS. So to keep it simple

It is not a strike, they have taken casual leave. This is permitted for 2 days under Indian law and guess what they get paid for it under Indian Law. If they wanted to stand up for what they believe they should also have the guts to go on strike instead of taking such an escapist and disruptive route. Give ample notice allow company to plan and respond and do it in a civilized manner.

Unions were good in the past especially for blue collar workers to defend their rights. In this day and age see where the auto unions have led the US car industry. Other posts on AI and their bloated staff are the result of unions there.

Why after all these years form a Union. I find it hard to believe pilots are being given an unsafe environment to work in or being over worked. Politics is a good paymaster and I suspect 2 senior captains seem to have such aspirations. This will lead all including Jet down the Tube.....

Overall if you read the media reports and public reaction the Pilots have come out as the "bad Boys" in this. Very very sad that in such hard times when the losses are a published fact good employees of companies cause further losses, grief and trauma on poor guidance.

I suspect the ex pats are staying away from this cause they know in the end it is about $$$$'s and in some of the countries where they are from the unemployment situation needs no explanation. I guess it would take some people a soup line to explain what it means to struggle to survive and what it means to be plain greedy.

:*

Well done!
 

Congratulations to the pilots of Jet Airways who have done what most have should have done on numerous occasions. They had the balls to do it .
Well done gentlemen/women.

You're looking at the wrong industry, mate.

US airlines have heavily unionized pilot groups. They somehow manage to stagger into the air every morning.....

Things are more complicated than they seem.

Unless you've spent time working with Jet or at least for an airline in India there are a lot of nuances to the management/pilots relationship there that you'll be missing. This situation is certainly nowhere near as simple or obvious as either party wishes to portray it.

It's true that the company has changed things such as the rules of progression on the Indian pilot group several times without sufficient mutual negotiation. However, it's also true that a goodly number of the pilot group routinely take individual actions that would be firing offences in most airlines elsewhere but that go undisciplined at Jet and similarly at other airlines in India.

From time spent in India my observation would be that pilot/management relations there can't be directly compared with what is considered normal in the rest of the world. The costs of open labour warfare, however, are about the same. Hopefully the cooler heads on both sides will prevail sooner rather than later, before they do each other irrepairable damage.

Staggering
 

1) Have they gone enmass on casual leave in the US?
2) Are they asking for pay hikes in the current market scenario?

Well, the union had given the company a 14 day advance notice regarding the strike on the 24th of August.

Cheers

I wonder if history will repeat itself? Will British charter companies (and their pilots) trip over themselves to take their aircraft out to India to save the day? (As they did with another ex-colony 20 years ago, almost to the month.)

Prescience indeed...
 

"I have a hunch I'll be sick for a day, 14 days from now..."

The UN Declaration of Human Rights affirms the right to be a member of a trade union, therefore the pilots are perfectly entitled to have one.

What they do with the union is another matter. With global losse running into billions worldwide, now is probably not the best time for unrealistic demands in terms of pay and conditions.

Unions are very much a two edged sword, we've all seen what they've done at General Motors. However I've worked in industries with no union representation and had conditions far below the norm.

I hope their union succeeds and I hope it behaves realistically.

Not another manager telling the staff they have to take it up the a***during a downturn?

I'm sick to death of managers making the staff suffer while the managers and shareholders are ok. Why the hell do we let them get away with it.

Good on the Jet Pilot's, go for it boys and girls.

Part of the Guilds demands apparently was the push to get rid of the remaining expats employed in India ASAP.

I think they may have shot themselves in the foot as the body count of pilots is continuing to mount and the final count will be high indeed.

The company on the other hand know they can get pilots to replace them (strike breakers) within 24 hours if necessary from anywhere in the world.

The guild's only demand was/is to to re-instate the two pilots who were sacked for initiating the union in the capacity of president and treasurer.

Nothing to do with expat policy, pay hikes, working conditions, monsoon Cb clouds etc.

Thats right
 

The only demand of the pilots is to re-instate the 2 pilots without any conditions, and then they went on to sack 2 more and probably more to follow.

The executive director actually went on air and said that "the chairman has the right to sack anyone he wishes at anytime without any reasons?????". This has acutally caused the media to turn there backs towards the managment.

The worst part of all this is these guys are all working for a psychotic chairman with an inflated ego and absoultely no power of reasoning.

Killing
 

Now it looks like that an ego's battle is taking place. The main loosers will be the pilots and workers that will eventually kill their airline and their jobs.
It's hard to think about an industrial action so badly planned, executed and operated like this. And with so dire consequences...
And the worst: the pilots are not earning any simpathy from local media and passengers. Only from competition.:confused:

Jet is putting 6-8 new expats online on their 737 fleet this week. More inductions expected.
It is reaching out to those expats who were earlier offered positions, but then put indefinitely on hold.

Just a thought, but if you or your company is even remotely contemplating breaking this action, think long and hard about how safe you'll feel in India, a foreign land if ever there was one. It matters not what foreigners think of the rights and wrongs of this action. All that matters is the Indian pilots themselves deal with their concerns and problems in their own way. Bollocks to all the pontificating experts in lands outside India itself. Best wishes and good speed to the Union and the pilots involved.

I don't think it would be productive to go down that line. If people were willing to operate to India when gunmen were running round hotels shooting people I doubt strike action would deter them. Furthermore I doubt any companies that were considering strike breaking would give their pilots the choice as to whether they wished to participate or not.

MM
The only demand is to reinstate the pilots who were sacked becaose they formed a union.
No other reason given

A decade ago, American Airlines pilots represented by the Allied Pilots Association staged a massive 'sickout'. Judge Joe Kendall approved a temporary restraining order against the job action, which most of the pilots ignored. As a result, APA got taken to the woodshed and a $45.5 million fine was levied and the fine was upheld on appeal. I'm sure it was wrapped into a later concession package, I doubt much of it was actually paid. It was the heady days before 9-11 when AA pilots were making top dollar.

After the massive fine, I don't believe pilot sickouts have been in the vogue in the U.S.

Don't know if they've had a recent reality check but a couple of years ago the APA was asking for a 53% pay increase:

American Pilots Seek 53 Percent Pay Hike - Business News - redOrbit

hold on guys
 

Before anything else, let me make it clear that I am not part of jet airways but a similar stakeholder in another private carrier. What happens in Jet now will affect all of us directly or indirectly. Having said that kudos to these guys for displaying an unprecedented UNITY and maintaining a DIGNITY inspite of all the muck that Jet management is trying to throw on them. Hats off to the president and secretary of NAG for the manner they have handled the press. Yesterday, I was horrified to see how Mr Pronoy Roy (on NDTV) was trying to browbeat these guys and how they stood up to him and to all other media sharks.:D:D:D
The background as I am hearing goes to almost two years since the time Jet started actively hiring expats at the cost of local talent who had more than adequate experience to handle the big birds being brought in. At the same time they started ignoring SWIP, which was the link between the pilots and mgmt. Jet guys have been on go slow since then and we could see that often cursing them whenever we got stuck behind them. The things came to a head when the Jet mgmt, in true barbaric style, tried to completely ignore SWIP, going to the extent of even question its legitimacy. It appears, in order to give it legitimacy, SWIP was reborn as NAG which now has a legal standing and of course the Jet mgmt did not like it one bit. That was the point of open confrontation resulting in the happenings of last three days. By going to labour commissioner, Jet mgmt has given this body its legitimacy and now by irrationally sticking to a weird demand of getting it derecognized, they are going to go nowhere. Lets face it, union is here to stay and the earlier the Jet mgmt recognizes it the better it is. At least they will stop losing the Rs.18-20 crore that they are doing now. OR is there a sinister plan of Jet mgmt to declare a lock out and get out of all its losses by blaming the pilots? This is another theory going around of how naresh goyal is trying to get out of the mess that he has created and finding the creditors now gnawing at his heels.
What next? A lot if like me, you are also a stakeholder in this profession.
At present, NAG is fighting its own battle, ICPA and IPG are doing their own things. Why not a national pilots union by whatever name it is called? There is an urgent need to have it like in other countries where aviation has come of age. Today everybody takes pilots for a ride whether it is DGCA or the company mgmt or the media or the general public. See what happened to the “Scientific” FDTL rules. The money and muscle power of airlines got it overruled and now work is on on a watered down version which will invariably serve the interests of Airlines rather than the affected parties that is us pilots. Similarly, look at the number of expats and compare that to the number of unemployed pilots in India. Except doing lip service, has the DGCA/ministry done anything for these guys? – NO. Unless we unite and negotiate as a block of affected parties, nobody is going to listen. The airlines have formed their own union – FIA, then why not us?
The biggest casualty that is happening due to us being fragmented is flight safety and we are in the direct line of fire – blame the pilot for whatever happens.
I would request that other stakeholders speak up and not only extend their support to jet guys but go further and join together.
Happy landings!!!
:8

Yes and we all know how healthy the US aviation industry is... :confused::rolleyes:

The parallel with the car industry is really bang-on I am afraid re: pensions, healthcare liabilities, etc.

India FATA procedures
 

You wrote: The company on the other hand know they can get pilots to replace them (strike breakers) within 24 hours if necessary from anywhere in the world.
This is not true. To work in India, you first need security clearance before you get to India. This takes from 6 weeks to 3 months or more in some cases.
Then after arrival in India, you must do an oral exam at the DGCA in Delhi to get your FATA. (Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorisation). After 90 days you do the written exam.
Meanwhile, there is a mountain of paperwork, clearances etc. So getting Expats in and flying within 24 hours is not an option open to the management.