ISLAMABAD: Employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) announced a “token” strike on Wednesday against the government’s move to privatize the national flag carrier, threatening a “complete strike” if their demands are not met.
Last week, the outgoing government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said it planned to privatize the loss-making PIA as Pakistan’s national airline has accumulated hundreds of billions of rupees in losses and arrears.
The government’s move to privatize the PIA would be in line with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal that Pakistan secured in June this year. The South Asian country agreed to fiscal discipline plans which also included privatizing loss-making entities.
“We have announced a token strike against the privatization of the PIA and the lack of an increase in the salaries of the PIA workers,” Hidayatullah, president of the national airline’s CBA People’s Unity union, told Arab News.
He lamented that the government had increased the salaries of all other departments but had not done the same for PIA employees.
“This has compelled us to initiate a token strike at our PIA booking offices across Pakistan from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. [Thursday], after which we will announce the next line of action,” he added.
Hidayatullah said if the employees’ demands were not met, they would move toward a “complete strike” as a last resort.
“Before that, we remain hopeful that the government will heed our demands, halt the privatization of the PIA, and implement a suitable increase in our salaries,” he added.
Hidayatullah hoped if the caretaker government could not reverse the PIA’s privatization, it could at least halt the process until a new government takes over. He added that the employees have decided to go on a token strike initially as they consider the national flag carrier as their own institution.
“However, we also hope that the government will not force us to escalate beyond the token strike,” he added.
In 2016, the PIA said it suffered a staggering loss of Rs1.8 billion when hundreds of employees walked out in protest against the then government’s decision to privatize the PIA.
Once a source of pride for Pakistan, many of the PIA’s aircraft have been cannibalized over the years to keep others flying while customers frequently complain of poor service and scheduled flights getting canceled.