Mangalore Tragedy - Where is synergy?

By M H Ahssan

A major change in the popular mood in the country in the post-1991 economic liberalisation period is that there is no sympathy left for trades unions, especially those of the public sector undertakings (PSUs).

It is not surprising then that the flash strike by Air Indian engineers union in the immediate aftermath of the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 crash in Mangalore last Saturday in which 158 passengers and crew were killed was seen as both untimely and insensitive.

For once, Air India management, the civil aviation ministry and the government got unwonted support. The strikers were seen as both arrogant and disruptive.

The sacking of the 17 union leaders and the suspension of 15 engineers is being seen as a firm and right response.

The national carrier has been going through a financial crisis for more than a year and the government has been taking guarded and even hesitant steps to put the airliner back on track, but the restructuring plan is not completely in place.

Meanwhile, there have been polarised positions, one arguing for privatisation of the carrier and the other for keeping it in the public sector and nursing it back to health. Government’s position, especially that of the ministry, has been quite ambiguous about it. It would seem that the government is weighing the political fallout of what should have been a decision based on economic rationality.

There is however a need to guard against the danger of making all trades union illegitimate, whether in the public or the private sector. The pro-market gurus do believe that economic efficiency will improve by leaps and bounds if there were no workers’ union as such.

The arguments for labour law reforms are subliminally based on the notion of decimating the unions. The reason for the bad reputation is to be laid squarely at the door of the union bosses, many of whom are no workers in the first place, and when they happen to be workers then they stop working. Most unions do not speak for the legitimate grievances of the workers.

Workers have the right even in a market economy to form unions and the right for collective bargaining. But this need not take the form of politicking where the political masters and union bosses strike illegitimate and secret deals.

The secret of success of any venture is a creative partnership between workers and managers.