The Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), a union representing about 10,000 employees of Air India (domestic), has called for a strike on May 31. A strike notice was served on the airline by the union, Air India confirmed. ACEU leader J.B. Kadyan said that the strike was being called on account of “delay in payment of salaries, shortfall of cabin crew, and ceding of ground-handling duties at Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports to the Air India-SATS joint venture.”
The Air India management has now invited the ACEU for talks on Thursday to resolve the matter and avert a strike. The ACEU is now estimated to have about 10,000 employees as its members including 1,300 cabin crew. Most of the members of the ACEU are understood to be deployed in ground-handling and administrative duties. Air India is confident that it will be able to persuade the ACEU to withdraw its strike notice.
It may be recalled that in March this year, the ACEU had asked its 1,300 Air India (domestic) cabin crew members to go on “mass leave” for a day on March 19 this year to protest against “shortfall” in the number of cabin crew but had withdrawn its call before that date. The ACEU had then said that shortfall in cabin crew is leading to tremendous stress levels and workload among the cabin crew.