Didn8217;t fly

The Airports Authority Employees8217; Union will say that gains were made with this week8217;s two-day 8216;non-cooperation8217;. That is arguable. They won the government8217;s assurance that in future, contracts for airport development would not have the provision for closing old ones, and that jobs at the old Hyderabad and Bangalore airports would be protected. This much they probably would have won from the government even without a strike. But labour disputes are often settled in a way that everyone looks like a winner. And if the AAI employees are now happy, who is to grudge them that? After all, they know that it is absolutely transparent why the strike ended so smoothly. It failed to achieve that basic goal of a disruptive course of action: to disrupt. On those two days, airports were by all accounts a bit filthy, the garbage was piling up, but otherwise flights adhered to their schedules as best as they normally do.

The union is looking a bit ridiculous after causing nothing but a stink, having played for stakes of political and vested interests. This demonstration suggests that diminishing returns have set in. That is not good for the trade union movement in this country. Moreover, the tame end to the strike shows up the Left MPs, who disrupted business this week protesting against the imposition of the Essential Services Maintenance Act. If the public sector trade unions have shown that they need to announce just one more strike to show their irrelevance the Left has been seen to totally misread the mood of the time. By this concerted agitation, they showed that airport upgrade is the one infrastructure reform that is working. In earlier strikes, the communist parties used to pull enough clout to ensure that operations in Kolkata, Agartala and Thiruvananthapuram airports were thrown out of gear. This time, the agitation yielded little passenger discomfort even in these Left strongholds.

There is, however, nothing special about civil aviation. The implication is wider: once reform hits a tipping point, the sector is significantly less susceptible to blackmail. Bank unions have realised this. Their leaders have tended to be even more audacious, making sure that they timed their strikes to dovetail into a string of holidays. Even so, in recent years life has gone on despite their threats. Yes, India needs one more union stir for this point to be underlined.