Air India forms four-member panel to cut number of unions to 2

Currently, the national carrier has as many as 15 recognised unions

Air India has constituted a four-member committee to frame modalities for drastically cutting down the number of recognised unions in the airline - a move that may facilitate efficient decision making during negotiations between union representatives and the management.

A senior official in Air India said, “A four-member committee headed by Krishna Mohan Sahni (former secretary, Ministry of Labour) has been formed. The committee will determine norms for recognising and synergising operations between unions associated with erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines.” Air India currently has 15 recognised and unrecognized unions.

The committee, which has been mandated to determine the norms, processes and modalities for conducting the exercise for recognition of unions associated with Air India, Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) and Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL), is scheduled to submit its report in January next year. Besides Sahni, pther members of the committee include Umrao Mal Purohit (president, International Transport Workers’ Federation, All India Railway Federation). Retired Chief Labour Commissioner S K Mukhopadhya and  Ajit Nigam (advisor, HR, Ircon International).

While the bigger unions have endorsed the move, smaller factions have already written to the airline voicing their protest against rationalization of the number of unions the airline would eventually recognize. “Three of the smaller unions have written to us against the move. The committee is set to hold meetings with all unions and submit a report early next year”, the official informed. He declined to specify details of the unions which are opposing the move.

The national carrier has drawn up a blue-print to rationalise the number of recognised unions in the airline from 15 currently to 2 - one union would be for pilots and the second would represent all other employees. The total strength of Air India employees is estimated at 25,000 (including the airline’s MRO and ground handling subsidiaries).

Employees Unions of Air India wide-bodied operations (erstwhile Air India)	Employees Unions of Air India narrow-bodied operations (erstwhile Indian Airlines)
Aviation Industry Employees Guild and its two splinter groups – Air India Employees Union All India Service Engineers Association	Indian Commercial Pilots Association
All India Cabin Crew Association	Indian Aircraft Technicians Association
Air India Aircraft Engineers’ Association	Indian Airlines Officers Association
Air India Engineers’ Association	Airlines Ground Instructors Association
Air India Officers’ Association	Airlines Radio officers & Flight Operations Officers Association
Indian Pilots Guild	Air Corporations Employees Union
	All India Aircraft Engineers Association
TOTAL STRENGTH  – 10,300	TOTAL STRENGTH  – 13,300
List includes both recognized and unrecognized unions. Around 12,000 of these employees have been transferred to Air India’s subsidiaries AIESL & AIATSL

Once implemented, this would be the single largest transformative measure in human resources in the history of the airline. “Multiplicity of unions leads to conflicting demands which often comes in the way of fruitful negotiations. We are looking at scaling down the number of recognised unions through elections”, the official added. The selection of the two unions will be done through an electoral process.

This move of rationalising the number of unions draws parallel to a move by the Indian Railways (IR) earlier in 2007, which brought down the number of unions to 2 from 34. The process to decide on the number of unions involved Indian Railways as many as1.4 million railway employees, who decided through secret ballot the leadership of its trade unions.

Bigger unions, meanwhile, are in support of the plan. “We are open to the plan of unification of unions. However, we are against the management's proposal of three separate unions for engineers for Air India, AIESL and AIATSL,” said George Abraham, general secretary, Aviation Industry Employees Guild – largest representative body of erstwhile Air India employees.

According to the plan, the airline’s two subsidiaries – Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) for Maintenance Repair and Overhaul and Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL) for ground handling – would have between them another three recognised unions.

Analysts have given thumbs up to Air India's plan. “Rationalizing the number of unions at AI is a long-pending reform. The AI management will have fewer union leaders to talk to and the conversation is likely to be more mature. Fewer unions also means that they would have higher bargaining power to get their legitimate demands accepted, rather than being pitted one against the other. Multiplicity of unions helps none, other than, perhaps, the union leaders,” said Amber Dubey, partner and head of aviation at global consultancy KPMG.

“No one has forgotten the debilitating pilot strike during the peak summer season last year. Everyone lost – AI, Indian passengers, foreign tourists, India’s brand image and the real owner of AI – the Indian taxpayer”, Dubey added.

The Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG), which represents pilots of erstwhile Air India, went on a 58-day strike in May 2012 to protest against the promotion procedure and the induction of erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots in training programmes to fly Dreamliners. The IPG was consequently derecognized by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh.