By IANS
Mumbai : Services at all 135 airports across the country may go for a toss next Tuesday, as over 18,000 airport employees have threatyened to go on an indefinite strike to protest privatisation of the airports.
“Our agitation is in protest against the ongoing privatisation of airports by the Airports Authority of India,” Dilip Gujjar, assistant general secretary of Airport Authority Employees’ Union (AAEU), told IANS here Thursday.
The AAEU is also protesting against the development of greenfield airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore that close the airports currently run by the AAI.
“At Delhi and Mumbai, where government has privatised the airports, the employees are being compelled to join the consortium of private companies which are managing them (airports) now. This is not acceptable to us,” Gujjar said.
He added that several other major demands of the employees have not been met despite repeated requests to the government in the past year-and-a-half.
A senior official of Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) admitted that “strike may cause disruptions as all the employees from operational, non-operational and safety services departments would support the agitation.”
Earlier Feb 12, the employees’ union had gone on a nationwide daylong relay “hunger strike” for similar demands.