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Tag Archives: Air india

Stop Privatisation of Air India – Employees’ Unions to the Prime Minister

06 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in Disinvestment, PSU

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Air india, Disinvestment, protest by unions

MUMBAI: Eight employee unions of Air India have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising serious concerns about the disinvestment of the national carrier and have sought an alternative revival plan.
In a letter, signed by representatives of the eight unions, they have also flagged possibility of job losses in case of privatisation.

Air Corporation Employees Union, All India Service Engineers’ Association, Air India Employees Union, Aviation Industry Employee Guild, Air India Aircraft Engineers’ Association, All India Aircraft Engineers’ Association, Air India Engineers Association and United Air India Officers Association have written the letter.

Together, these unions represent more than 10,000 Air India employees.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has sought Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential bidders for a 76 per cent stake sale in loss-making Air India as well as divestment of two of the carrier’s subsidiaries.

“We strongly protest Government of India’s move to privatise or disinvest Air India/subsidiaries as it is against the interest of the country and urge the government to review its decision… and explore the possibility of an alternative to disinvestment/ privatisation,” it said.

According to the letter, a copy of which has been seen by PTI, the unions said Air India can be restored to its “pristine glory” if debt worth Rs 30,000 crore is waived off or the loan is restructured and a proper roadmap is put in place with effective management.

Referring to the previous NDA government’s decision to sell two Centaur Hotels properties in Mumbai, the letter said there have been job losses after it.

“In our view, privatisation of Air India should be completely avoided with an effective revival plan with the participation of employees. It is also urged to write off/ restructure the loan for Air India revival instead of giving benefit to any private entity,” the letter, dated April 3, said.

Among others, the unions noted that the airline has never defaulted on interest repayments. (Courtesy: Times of India)

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Protest privatisation of Air India, the Jewel of the Nation.

29 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in Disinvestment, PSU

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Air india, Disinvestment

The decision of the central government to disinvest 76% shares of Air India, the national carrier called the Jewel of the Nation, is completely against the interest of the nation and is part of the aggressive privatisation move of the government to eliminate all PSUs to suit to the requirement of the private corporates to grab maximum profits. There is no justification for the privatisation of Air India, except that by doing so, the private carriers will get a hay day for raising the charges and garnering huge profits at the cost of the passengers.

Air India was one of the profit making excellent PSUs till the government merged Indian Airlines with it and ordered a large number of planes paying huge amount, when that much number of planes were not at all necessary and viable.
It is reported that the bid worth for Air India is fixed at Rs. 5,000 crore. With its large number of planes, the space it has got in all the airports, the machinery, the buses and other infrastructure, Air India will be having an asset of more than Rs. 20,000 crore at the least. Of course, privatisation is a process through which the valuable PSUs are gifted to the corporates for name sake price.

Strong protest should come up against this anti-people move of the government and the privatisation should be defeated.

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Air India privatisation should be stalled

20 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in General

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Air india, Protest against privatisation

 

The prime air carrier of Government of India, Air India, is on the brink of being privatised. The government has already started preparations for the same. The highly profitable Air India was made loss making due to the wrong policies and actions of the government including the controversial Air India- Indian Airlines Merger, purchase  of 111 planes, while only 35 were operationally required etc. etc. Large mount of unpaid airfare charges by the Ministers, government officers etc. is another reason. And now the move is to privatise it.

It is reported that all the unions of employees  in Air India are meeting to discuss about how to stall the process of privatisation. Well and good. Let us hope that strong protest and struggle will be planned and organised against the anti-PSU policy of the Modi Government.

Our solidarity and support to the struggle of the Air India workers.

 

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‘No reason why Air India can’t run as a PSU’ – Chairman, Air India.

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in General

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Air india, privatisation

Rajiv Bansal, the new Chairman of Air India, in an interview as published in the Hindu dated 18th September 2017, has stated that ‘there is no reason why Air India can not be run as a PSU.’This is a welcome statement.

However, he continues to state that just like that the employees did not have any problem with the privatization of Airports in Delhi, Bombay etc., there will be no problem to the employees due to privatisation of Air India.

This is not correct. The workers want to continue in the PSU and not under private owners, whose interest is only to get more and more profit. Wherever privatization has taken place workers have suffered in various ways. In fact, there is no need to privatise Air India or any other PSU. It is only to allow the private companies to garner profits at the expense of the government and the people.

 

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Air India and BSNL in the list for privatisation / Disinvestment

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in BSNL

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Air india, BSNL, privatisation

The greedy eyes of the corporates have been on Air India and BSNL for the last many years. Both the UPA and NDA governments have been pushing through this agenda through out, but due to the strong opposition from the unions, they could not implement so far. But by sinister moves, the government has made them both loss making during the last ten years or so, so that on that count the dismemberment can take place, with out criticism from the people.. Both of them were making good profits before the government started ulterior moves to make them loss making.

Air India was making good profit and running efficiently till it was merged with India Airlines. Further, the profitable routes were handed over to private companies. Air India flight was time scheduled to be the third or fourth flight on the same route with the private companies getting the earlier slot. Equal flights to foreign companies was changed in favour the foreign carriers. 111 planes were ordered at the initiative of the Civil Aviation Minister, where as 35 only was necessary and the entire funds misused. With all this anti-Air India decisions, it has been made loss making as required. The private companies benefitted and strengthened. Now Government has decided to strategically sell the Air India.

The case of BSNL is not different. With the promise of strengthening telecom services with all assurances of financial assistance  to it, BSNL was formed as a PSU in 2000. It was highly profitable for the first 6-7 years with the annual profit reaching to the extent of Rs.6000 to 12,000 crore with a revenue of Rs. 35,000 -40,000 crore. It was one of the most profitable PSU in the country. It is to be noted that BSNL grew and increased its position despite the fact that private companies have been functioning with all help from the government for the last 10 years.

It is at this junction in 2006 that the then Minister directly intervened and cancelled tender for 4.5 crore mobile lines on flimsy grounds. Again a 9 crore lines tender was cancelled. BSNL was starved of equipments at a time when the Indian telecom market was exploding and all the benefits were  given to the private companies. All the cash balance of the company of Rs. 40,000 crore was taken over by the government on or other plea. The ADC fund to BSNL was reduced and stopped. The USO Fund to compensate for the loss making village connections were reduced and denied in some cases. More than 1,80,000 vacancies arisen due to retirement have not been filled up. When the Ministers themselves are part of corruption, there is no stopping some top management corrupt officers who utilised BSNL to their own benefit making the company huge loss. Many such vigilance cases are pending for years together.

BSNL has been able to withstand to the present extend only through the continuous struggle of the employees and their unions and associations. Programmes initiated by the employees like “Service With A Smile”, “Subscriber Delight Year” etc. in the last few years, supported by the management also has stopped increase of losses and have actually reduced the same. For the last two years, there is operational profit. If, demonetisation and the entry of Reliance Jio with its deep pockets has not arrived, BSNL would have got real profit by 2017-18.

The decision of the government to privatise / disinvest these two major PSUs should be opposed and defeated. The Central Trade Unions have been fighting against the privatisation of the PSUs and many united strikes have taken place. A Maha Dharna before Parliament will be organised with lakhs of workers for three days  from 9th to 11th November 2017. It may be followed by strike.

The employees of the PSUs, the trade unions and the people together has to defeat the sinister move of the government to sell the valuable property of the  Nation.

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Will “Air India” become “Indigo”?

30 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in PSU

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Air india, privatisation

The Central government is moving fast for strategic sale of Air India, the government owned Airlines, which has been functioning for the last more than seven decades as the Prime Airline in India on both International  and domestic routes.

The policy decisions taken by the continuing central governments,  like purchasing about 111 planes where there was requirement only for about 35 planes, merging Air India and Indian Airlines, handing over its routes to private companies etc. created such a situation that Air India started incurring losses. The non-payment of large amount of bills by the Central and State governments was another reason. It is understood that many such amount has been written off.

In short, the government itself is fully responsible for the present state of affairs of Air India. Even while it is in loss as per accounts due to the large loans, interest etc. Air India has been posting operational profit for the last few years. A good management with the support of the government would have restored Air India to its glorious past. But the government is intended on sale of the Air India as per its neo-liberal policy completely supporting the corporates to garner profit.

The latest information is that Indigo Airlines has informed its interest in taking over Air India, mainly its international flights. There will be other companies also including foreign airlines.

Will Air India become a nostalgic memory of the past? Whether struggles by the Air India Staff, central trade unions and progressive section of the  people will save Air India from privatisation?

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Cabinet decides to disinvest Air India

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in Disinvestment, PSU

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Air india, Disinvestment

The Cabinet today decided to disinvest Air India. The report by the PTI is given below:

“The Union Cabinet today, 28th June 2017,  cleared disinvestment of debt-laden Air India but the final modalities, including the quantum of stake sale, will be decided by a group of ministers.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Cabinet has given “in-principle” approval for disinvestment of Air India.

A group will be set up to finalise modalities/details of disinvestment of Air India, including the quantum of stake sale, he said.

The civil aviation ministry is charting out the disinvestment of the state-run carrier.

Surviving on taxpayers’ money, Air India has been in the red for long and various proposals, including government think tank Niti Aayog’s suggestion for complete privatisation, have been made.

The airline has a debt of more than Rs 52,000 crore and is surviving on a Rs 30,000-crore bailout package extended by the previous UPA government in 2012. “

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Finance Minister exposes himself on Air India Sale.

03 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in General

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Air india, Arun Jaitely

According to press reports, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely has stated that he wanted to disinvest Air India while he was in charge of the the Disinvestment Ministry during the period 1999-2000.

This exposes the deep rooted conspiracy of the NDA government to sell the national carrier, even before it started posting serious loss. The debt situation was very less at that time.

As far as the NDA government is concerned, it is only the question whether it is to be sold to Foreign or Indian Companies? But it is not an easy matter, since the workers and their unions in Air India will fight this danger with all their might, with the support of the working class in India.

 

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AI and AI

29 Monday May 2017

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in Disinvestment, PSU

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Air india, Disinvestment, PSU

So far AI meant Air India. But now the ‘AI’ is more and more being used for Artificial Intelligence.

Government wants to eliminate Air India by closure or by strategic sale. Then, only one  AI will be there – Artificial Intelligence, which means more and more robots and robotics, mainly benefitting the corporates, rich and powerful, thus reducing the workforce.

However, the Air India workers and the people will not allow the major PSU, Air India, to be privatised. There is going to be sustained struggles, that I am sure.

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Air India may be put up for Strategic Sale – Finance Minister

28 Sunday May 2017

Posted by VAN NAMBOODIRI in General, PSU

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Air india, Strategic Sale

The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that Air India may be put up for strategic sale has shocked the nation. Air India and Indian Air Lines were both profitable, but after compulsory merger by the government, the merged Air India became loss making. The unnecessary purchase of planes, almost three times its requirement, at the behest of the then Minister Praful Patel and wrong policy decisions are the main reasons. For the last three years, Air India has reduced its losses and has posted operational profit. The deficit is mainly due to the depreciation for the assets like planes etc.

Probably the government may have a feeling that once Air India becomes profitable, it will be difficult to privatise it. Hence the urgency to implement strategic sale of this great PSU.

It is no different with BSNL. Once it is posting operational profit, NITI Ayog has recommended its closure or privatisation.

The Modi government in its privatisation madness, is going to destroy all the Public Sector Units one after another. This madness has to be cured by the sustained struggle of the workers with the full support of the people, who are the real sufferers.

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