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an understudy helped me understand the problems. Listening to people’s grievances, I realised that there was a growing disenchantment within the department over the ways of the union leaders, who had become stronger even as the management had grown weak. Every change in work practice or service procedure, even if it was a minor one, had to be ratified by the union leadership. In most instances, the union would refuse to let the changes go through and if they did, it would be after exacting a hefty price in terms of additional allowances, concessions on the work front for their members or demands that disciplinary actions initiated against their members be rescinded. If the management persisted with any change not sanctioned by the union leadership or opposed their stand, they would promptly launch a flash strike or a long-drawn agitation, which would delay flights or create hurdles in the smooth operation of the flights. What was worse was that the AICCA had been allowed to set up their office in the In-flight Services Department’s new office complex. This allowed their leaders to keep a close watch on the members and identify those that dared go against their diktat. There was also regular interference in the working of the department. The more I heard these accounts and studied the situation, I felt that the unions were not only being unreasonable but were deliberately destroying the airline, corroding its reputation and driving away future passengers. They were bolstered by their belief that passengers would continue to fly Air India because they had no other choice. They were clearly being short-sighted.
    It was not going to be easy, but as the head of the department, I had to address the issues that were dragging the airline down. I finally took charge on the first day of February 1993 and initiated efforts to bring in a change in the department’s functioning in a calibrated manner. Reclaiming from the union in the shortest possible time the management’s right to manage the department was of top priority. Action had to be concurrently initiated on improving the product profile. Working on the established dictum that stagnancy was the first sign of decay, I devised a three-pronged strategy to usher in change. The first stage was to work on areas that were not in direct conflict with the union’s priorities. For instance, we introduced new crockery on all flights to replace the 22-year-old sets that were in use at the time, redesigned all customer interfaces to bring in brand uniformity, began screening BBC news on the flights and so on. In the second phase, we decided to venture into spaces where the union would have minor interest—such as upgrading the food and alcohol served on flights, making minor modifications to the duty-free range and upgrading the quality of announcements. The final stage would be where we would steamroll changes that would evoke union outrage but were necessary for the company.
    The AICCA opposed every move. Even the change of crockery was resisted, because they saw it as an imposition and protested over not being consulted. Not only was the rationale absurd, it amounted to falsehood because members of the cabin crew who had been promoted to the management ranks were the ones who had decided on Royal Doulton crockery to best reflect the airline’s image. Besides, what difference did the shape, size or brand of crockery make to the crew members?
    Magnifying the issue was the fact that the union did not allow disciplinary action against errant crew members. They asked all members to refuse being subjected to various mandatory programmes and checks that were part of the organisation’s way of maintaining the airline’s standards. For instance, if a crew member failed the breathalyser check, the union wanted him to be pardoned;if a passenger complained about rude crew behaviour, they always blamed the passenger and would not let the management act against the accused crew member. If the