Jet still grounded, hopes pinned on today's talks

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: As the impasse over the Jet Airways pilots stir continued for the third day on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh enquired about the crisis at the Cabinet meeting, and hopes for a solution were pinned on Friday���s conciliation talks convened by the Chief Labour Commissioner.

Over 230 flights, including 37 on international routes, were cancelled, giving passengers an unending ordeal.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel gave a detailed update at the Cabinet meeting, where Mr Singh is understood to have enquired about the situation.

The question of possible intervention by the government to end the crisis was also discussed, official sources said, but no view was taken at the meeting.

Jet Airways chief Naresh Goyal met Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam on Thursay evening soon after the latter came out in strong support of the pilots and demanded that the airline be nationalised.

Both the National Aviators Guild (NAG), which is spearheading the stir over the sacking of four pilots, and the management, however, stuck to their respective stands.

NAG president Girish Kaushik said the pilots are ready to return to flying duties in ���15 minutes��� from the moment their four colleagues are reinstated. ���Once our four sacked colleagues are taken back, everything will be all right,��� he said, adding the NAG will take part in the talks.

Jet Airways executive director Saroj Dutta held a three-hour meeting with chief labour commissioner SK Mukhopadhyay in New Delhi apprising him about the management���s stand. The meeting remained inconclusive. The management appears to be unwilling to dilute its demand to disband the NAG, which the pilots��� body is not agreeable to.

Kaushik hoped there will be some ���understanding��� at Friday���s conciliation talks in New Delhi. The NAG did not have any meeting with the chief labour commissioner.

Extending support to the management, ground staff of the airline in New Delhi issued an emotional appeal to the protesting pilots asking them to return to work.

NAG joint general secretary and one of the sacked pilots, Capt Sam Thomas, told PTI, ���The deadlock continues. There is nothing to say. No one has approached us for talks.���

���We have cancelled 197 domestic and 37 international flights on Thursday,��� Jet Airways general manager (flight operations) E Sainath said in Mumbai.

Pilots have indicated that they would continue their agitation against sacking of two of their colleagues after no headway was made in the discussions between the two sides till late last night with the protestors also insisting that their trade union rights cannot be curtailed.

The stalemate continued despite five hours of talks between members of the NAG, which is spearheading the stir, and the management through an interlocutor in Delhi. The company does not recognise the union and has termed the agitation as illegal.

In New Delhi, Surender Sharma, a representative of the ground staff, told reporters, ���We want this strike to be withdrawn because it is affecting not only the airline but us also. The future of families depends on this as the company is losing revenues as well as passengers��� trust.���

Jagjeet Kaur, another ground staff, said, ���We want this agitation to come to an end today itself. We have been working as a team and now after two days of the strike, the future of 13,000 non-pilot employees is at stake.���