Cockpit vs cabin

A young woman,who works as part of Jet’s ground crew,told reporters that the pilots are paid “salary which amounts to 40 per cent of the company’s revenue. But they are forgetting the rest of us.” In a few words,the Jet employee has summed up the farcical nature of the Jet pilots’ claim to be a genuine trade union. For those institutions,however perverse the incentives they supply,however they deteriorate into goondaism and insider-privilege,can at least claim — however doubtfully — to represent vulnerable employees regardless of rank or station. It was the final indication,as if any more was needed,that the pilots’ strike is nothing more than white-collar activism of the most contemptible sort.

At around this time last year,during the festive season,Jet Airways sacked about 850 employees. Of course,they sacked the lower-paid ones,groundstaff and flight attendants. At that point India saw genuine employee outrage,and this newspaper took a stand that the firing was badly done,and clearly an attempt by the airlines to put pressure on the government. The visual image of last October,of young people proud to wear their employers’ uniform but speaking out against injustice,meshes well with this September,of the same young people proud to wear that uniform,and speaking out against unfairness again — but this time of another selfish clique.

That moment,when Jet’s groundstaff made a simple yet emotional appeal to the pilots to get back to work,encapsulated something about what India is going through at this moment in its history. Jet’s groundstaff represent aspirational India. Many,now proficient in English,will have struggled to learn the language. Many will be from small towns. Most,no doubt,when growing up,thought of work in an airline as a ladder to a better life,one more exciting and fulfilling than was available to their parents or grandparents. But their ambitions — ambitions that will keep our companies going,our economy growing — will continually rub up against those who have grown slothfully comfortable in unearned privilege. When that privilege is threatened,these insiders will revolt — and they will resent the reform that takes away their privileges. But we know better. The cliques, the guilds,the beneficiaries of licences and restrictions,are on the wrong side of history. The young crew member and her colleagues will sweep them away.