Nothing is more dangerous than Powerlessness
It has been a month of great excitement. Takes me back to a time when airplanes, pilots, strikes, bombs and austerity were part of my everyday life.
The Jet Airways strike hogged the headlines for over a week. So many questions. Should pilots be allowed to form a Union? Should pilots call a strike and create chaos for thousands of commuters who are exercising their legitimate right to fly from point A to point B for reasons that could even be urgent and compassionate? Can pilots go on mass sick leave?
No two people will agree on the answers. Our antiquated Labour laws permit “workmen” to form a Trade Union and manage their relationship under the “Industrials Disputes Act”
Broadly speaking a “workman” is an employee who is not accountable for the work of others except his own. He does not sanction anything and has no authority to make decisions as is the case of Supervisors and Managers.
Strangely, years and years ago, the Air India’s Pilots Guild was recognized as a Union. But then Air India was a public sector organization and Governmental appeasement was a well entrenched Management style of functioning.
As is well known Air India had to pay a heavy price for this bringing a truly great Maharaja flying on a magic carpet crashing, almost dying and needing bailouts from tax payers money.
In those days I used to write a column called “By George” for the Indian Express and later for “Midday”. I wrote a piece called “Pontius Pilot” in which
I also mentioned the pre-arrival scene of all the “goodies” including miniature bottles of alcohol being loaded into the bags of the crew, some part for family members but mostly for sale. The article was illustrated by Mario Miranda and depicted a terribly obese pilot with a big paunch struggling to get into the narrow door of his cabin.
Not surprisingly I received threats from members of the Guild and the Cabin Crew’s Association saying that if I ever dared to travel by Air India I would be chopped to pieces and served as mince-meat to the passengers.
Non vegetarian passengers, I presume. With a the contents of a raw egg to top it, making it into a French delicacy called “steak tartare”
If I did not ever travel by Air India it was not because Lufthansa offered discounts to German Hoechst Pharmaceuticals for whom I worked and Al Italia almost gave away tickets to members of the various Pontifical Councils of the Vatican, but because Air India became the most unreliable Airline in the world !
Let me say categorically that I am not against trade unions. I have worked with them successfully for 25 years including with the late Dr Dutta Samant. Hoechst Pharmaceuticals whose Human Resources I managed did not have a single day’s work stoppage, including before my time and after it if I may say, honestly and modestly.
The scenario has changed drastically. Globalization, market driven economies, the demise of internationally powerful unions, and recently one of the most frightening recessions in history.
By no stretch of imagination, at least today, would a pilot earning an astronomical salary and having leadership roles in critical decision making for the comfort, safety and security of his passengers and crew be defined as a “workman” and therefore entitled to be a member of a “trade union”
But I strongly advocate that all groups vulnerable to the idiosyncrasies of Management decisions, especially in the area of fairness and justice, should band together to be able be a strong, collaborative stakeholder and partner in the Organisation.
Mr. Goyal who manages his power equations with so many stake holders so admirably would surely know that his Pilots and everyone of his Managers are vital stakeholders and sharing power with them must become his top priority.
In the final analysis all relationships are governed by the sharing of power.
When a party loses power a vacuum is created. The powerless seek the help of outsiders (non stakeholders) to restore the balance or it uses they use unconstitutional means, including violence, to restore parity. No one is more dangerous than a powerless person.
Your son or daughter, ill-treated or neglected, run away from home in an act of such powerfulness that you have to shamefully advertise “Come back, all is forgiven” or “Mother serious, return at once”
Humiliate your wife and wonder why she is having an affair with your neighbour.
Remember the frail, old lady who was changing the tyre of her car when the jack collapsed? She was pinned under the car on a lonely road. Utterly powerless she called up all the energy she had and with one mighty heave got out form under the car.
Remember the teenager villager confronted by a tiger in the forest? Totally powerless, with his back to the wall and the tiger with its paws on his chest, the villager summoned unknown resources of strength and choked the tiger to death.
Think of our Naxalites. Think of the Palestians deprived of their Statehood and the land that rightfully belongs to them
Nothing generates violence as much as powerlessness
Powerlessness corrupts and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely!!