India airport workers strike work

[Paul]

Airport workers in India have begun an indefinite strike in protest against the government's decision to privatise the country's two biggest airports.

Two Indian construction firms won bids on Monday to modernise Delhi and Mumbai (Bombay) airports along with their foreign partners.

The airports will be leased to the private companies as part of the deal.

The move is opposed by trade unions and the government's communist allies who say it will lead to job cuts.

The deal has still to be approved by the cabinet.

Security at Delhi and Mumbai airports have been stepped up as workers protested noisily, but there are no reports of any delay or disruption of flights.

"Yes, we have started the strike. More than 90 % of the total employees of Mumbai [airport] are participating in the strike," union leader Nitin Jadhav said in an interview to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

BBC News

 

[Paul]

Update:

India's airport workers agreed to return to work after calling off a strike to protest the proposed sale of stakes in the nation's biggest airports, heeding a request by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the unions.

Singh's Congress Party-led coalition government also provided assurances to workers that their jobs would be protected, prompting the unions to end the boycott that disrupted the functioning of airports for four days.

``Following a written assurance from the government and the prime minister's request yesterday, we have called off the strike,'' M.K. Ghoshal, general secretary of the Airports Authority Employees Union, said in a telephone interview from New Delhi. ``I have advised the employees to go back to work and expect things to be back to normal by this evening.''

About 17,000 of 21,000 airport workers engaged in maintenance and other jobs participated in the strike to protest a government decision to sell stakes in the Mumbai and New Delhi airports to private domestic and overseas companies.

The government will set up a committee to study issues, including job security, related to the proposed upgrading of airports by the Airports Authority of India, Press Trust of India reported. Prime Minister Singh yesterday assured airport workers their jobs will be safe and asked them to return to work.

Bloomberg