RAM pilots strike: transport minister says solution lies in dialogue

Moroccan minister of equipment and transport, Karim Ghellab, said only dialogue can solve the conflict between the pilots of the national carrier, Royal Air Maroc (RAM), currently on strike, and the company's administration.

Ghellab, was interviewed by the national TV "TVM," voiced "readiness of RAM's administration to take part in this dialogue to work out a solution," deploring that this issue "harms strongly the Moroccan economy."

The Moroccan association of airliner pilots (AMPL) is staging since last Thursday a strike to protest the dismissal of six pilots for "serious professional mistakes."

RAM's CEO, Mohammed Berrada, on Sunday called pilots and collaborators to resume their work and make the company's interest "prevail over their individual ones."

Berrada, who was interviewed by Moroccan TV 2M, criticized the strike, saying "nothing can justify such an action." The industrial action, he noted, harms the company, customers and the country's economy and tourism, for which the government and the population are making considerable efforts.

He said the strike is also motivated by underlying reasons, alluding to some pilots' refusal to serve in another partner airliner for the same wage.

On his part, the vice president of the Moroccan Airline Pilots Association (AMPL) asserted that AMPL will carry on the strike as long as the direction of the company does not give up its "decision of abusive and collective dismissal of several pilots" and accepts to "open a constructive dialogue."