Mumbai: Air India unions on Thursday night appeared to have reservations over government's plan to hive off the carrier's engineering and ground handling services into two wholly owned subsidiaries as part of its turnaround strategy and they plan to have a meeting on Friday.
A meeting of 7 unions under a joint front comprising pilots, engineers, a ground handling staff, technical staff etc will meet on Friday, a Air India Union office bearer said hours after Government announced the restructuring plan in a bid to turn around the cash-strapped state-owned airline. The office bearer did not want to be named.
The office bearer claimed that the AI management did not consult the unions before finalising the decision.
This is not a right move as simply hiving of a unit and transfering manpower will not solve the larger problem, he said, adding, as of now there is no clarity as to how the airline wants to go about the plan.
Another office bearer said the hiving off strategy is not a good move at all. This type of model does not work anywhere in the world, he said.
He said unions had made presentation to the Civil Aviation Minister based on various studies carried out across the world showing how the engineering facility business is not profitable. Air India currently services its aircraft inhouse.
Moreover, the facility is not upto the international standard and the global airlines would not come unless facilities are upgraded which involves a cost of atleast Rs 1,000 crore, an Air India Union source said.
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