Air India crew, maintenance staff on flash strike
25 May 2010
Over 15,000 crew members and maintenance engineers of Air India went on a flash strike today, protesting a delay in payment of wages and a gag order by the management asking employees not to speak to the media.
Employee union sources said several flights had to be cancelled due to shortage of crew. They said they were trying to talk to the management since the past few months but to no avail.
Flights IC 264 (Delhi-Kolkata), IC 805 (Delhi-Mumbai), IC 469 (Delhi-Ahmedabad) and IC 849 (Delhi-Pune) were cancelled, a source said.
A government press release, however, said the strike by a section of ground employees of Air India did not affect flights from major metro cities, although there have been a few dislocations at some of the non-metro airports.
The airline operated 116 of the 123 scheduled flights on the network till 1430 hours, the release said.
While there have been four cancellations, some flights have been delayed or combined. The airline is making every possible effort to maintain normalcy in operations, it added.
