Three more AI pilots on hunger strike hospitalized

[1]

Three Air India pilots were hospitalised on Saturday after their condition worsened for being on a protest fast for the past seven days even as there were no signs of a resolution to the strike, which neared two months.

The pilots, who have been criticising the management for not taking any initiative to resolve the 54-day-long impasse, blamed the Air India top brass for ‘sabotaging’ the initiative of the Chief Labour Commissioner to end the imbroglio by not attending conciliation proceedings, leaders of the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) said.

Three senior IPG leaders were taken by the police from their hunger strike venue at Jantar Mantar to the RML Hospital after doctors found they were suffering from problems of blood pressure and sugar.

The three were Capt Aditya Singh Dhillon, Capt Manish Choudhary and Capt Vikas Tripathi. Till Friday, five pilots - three in Delhi and two in Mumbai - were hospitalised.

Over 400 being on strike since May 7 and about 20 pilots now on indefinite hunger strike in Mumbai and Delhi over demands relating to career progression and revocation of sack orders against 101 of their colleagues.

The management and the Civil Aviation Ministry have been maintaining that termination notices would be considered on a case-to-case basis only after they withdrew their agitation.

Agitating pilots blamed the management for not joining them in the conciliation proceedings before the CLC, saying the airline top brass were ‘sabotaging’ CLC's efforts to bring about a resolution.

In a statement, the IPG also said that all pilots were not affluent or highly paid as was being projected by the management and the Ministry, saying there were many whose families had spent their life savings to get them trained as pilots.