KARACHI - The mother union of PIA employees yesterday announced to end the eight-day-long strike and asked the employees to resume flight operations across the country with immediate effect.
The breakthrough came with the help of ‘a kind friend’ belonging to the aviation industry, main leader of the protesters Captain Suhail Baloch said without taking any name.
Two PIA employees lost their lives while national exchequer suffered a loss of around Rs2.5bilion during the strike, which caused hardship to about 0.1million passengers of 900 international and domestic routes.
Baloch, who is the chairman of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of protesting Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) workers, said their positive efforts for the rights of airline workers would not go in vain.
“Since the committee has been given enough assurance on the issue of privatisation, it was not required to further continue the strike and stall the flight operations,” he said while speaking to the media.
He requested all the airline workers “to work with full dedication and pay no heed to anyone trying to disrupt the flight operations”.
The PIA employees were protesting against government plans to privatise the national flag carrier, fearing that many of them will lose jobs eventually.
Verbal assurances in this regard from the government, including the one from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself, failed to allay their fears.
The government had declined any sort of negotiations with the protesters till the end of strike. Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed had made it clear in a telephone chat with The Nation that no negations will be held with the ‘blackmailers’.
JAC chief rejected any deal over the FIR registered against the killing of PIA employees during protest in Karachi and said that the FIR still had the names of federal ministers, senators and others.
“We will prove that we can revive the ailing national airline. I don’t see why we can’t do that if we all work hard and are able to revive PIA within a time of six months to a year,” he said.
The JAC chairman said further details will be disclosed after the union meets with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore ‘tonight’ (Tuesday).
“We hope that the meeting with Punjab chief minister will be satisfactory and beneficial for both for the government and the employees of PIA,” said Baloch.
When asked if the JAC has retracted from its demands, Baloch said he will “apprise media about the developments after meeting with the Punjab chief minister”.
If the PIA workers cooperate with each other, there is no reason they cannot revive the airline within a year, he said. “We can revive this airline, we just need some support and guidance,” he claimed.
The employees of the airline had started the protest 16 days ago and they went on strike from February 2. The strike suspended the flight operation on all domestic and international routes as only 65 flights could be operated out of the total 960 scheduled flights.
Authorities took to invoking a law that made any union activity illegal. But this move along with warnings of stern action against those defying their duties could not make protesting employees end the strike.
However, divisions had started emerging in protesters ranks since the start which were exploited by the government. The Pakistan Air Lines Pilot Association (Palpa) did not endorse the stance taken by the JAC and called for resuming the flight operations. The strike was further weakened by the groups formed within the JAC, who disagreed with the approach held by the union leadership.
Sources in PIA employees unions claimed that the JAC had called off strike without taking all unions into confidence. After the government succeeded in partial resumption of flights, they said, the JAC leadership wanted a face-saving for which they approached some political and industry influential.
They said the JAC has called off the strike when around 60 percent employees, especially pilots and engineers, were expected to join their duties from Wednesday.
The PIA flight operations had partially resumed on Monday and the head offices in Karachi and Islamabad were reopened. A number of flights flew to their destinations and also arrived from different national and international locations. And now after the JAC announcement, the flight operation is expected to be restored fully today.