Promotions are also harder to obtain than in high school education. A union leader, Mahalingaiam Hiremath, said that if pay rises promised in March and April of this year were not honoured, a strike would be inevitable. There was a violent demonstration in the central Indian city of Ahmedabad this week, when 3,000 farmers marched in protest against plans by the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority to acquire 50 percent of their farming land. Eleven farmers were arrested in clashes against police, who fired tear gas to try to break up the rally. Traffic in the city ground to a halt during the running battles between farmers and police.
Unions say the corporation is heading towards privatising the industry.
If workers' problems were not resolved, union convenor H.S. Manjunath said workers would be called on to step up their industrial action. Senior pilot's individual pay will be cut by 7 to 22 percent, and pilots will receive stock options. Some 45 pilots have taken redundancies rather than work under the new agreement. Flights continue to be delayed because of the 45 redundancies and because some pilots are still on sick leave. At the same time, the Government Flying Service announced plans to phase out helicopter pilots by 2003.