The Hindu : Airline staff plan strike tomorrow

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 19, 2003

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Airline staff plan strike tomorrow

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI FEB. 18. The possibility of a 24-hour nationwide strike by a majority of the aviation sector employees threatens to disrupt domestic and international flights on Thursday, as airlines staff today pressed ahead with their single-point demand of revocation of tax on free and concessional air passage to them.

"Our representations to the Government have yielded no result. We have no other option but to resort to agitation for withdrawal of this unjust tax,'' Vaskar J. Deka, regional secretary of the Air India Employees Guild, said here.

The strike has been called by the National Action Committee, umbrella organisation of the 15 unions, federations and associations, including those of the Air India and the Indian Airlines. The strike is slated to begin on 6.00 a.m. on February 20. It is likely to hit the flight schedules of the two state-owned carriers, besides foreign and private airlines, as the engineering and ground staff of the AI and the IA handle foreign carriers as well. The final strike notice was served today on the Civil Aviation Secretary, K. Roy Paul.

The airlines employees are aggrieved as they are being subjected to 30 per cent tax on the air tickets used by them. .

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