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The Left parties said on Saturday that the strike by the Airport Authority of India employees against the privatisation of the modernisation of the Mumbai and Delhi airports, will not be called off despite indications late on Friday that the agitation might called off following their meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who assured that jobs of AAI staff at Delhi and Mumbai airports will be protected.
Left Front leaders D Raja and Gurudas Dasgupta reiterated the stand taken by trade unions, communist parties and the AAI employees that the strike will continue till the government pays heed to the demands of the agitating employees.
Meanwhile, a scuffle broke out between striking airport workers and the police at the airport when they were allegedly prevented from holding demonstrations even as consultations started between various unions to decide on the future course of the stir on Saturday.
AAI employees claimed that the police initially allowed them to hold a meeting but later asked them to disperse, saying the gathering was too large.
However, the police maintained that they were only following the high court directions.
Although the agitating employees started gathering at the airport early on Saturday, police kept them off the 500 metre limit around the airport.
The airport continued to present an unkempt look with garbage littered around even as flight operations remained unaffected.
Defiant note
The Left Front appeared determined to continue with the agitation. Striking a defiant note in face of the Delhi High Court order restraining the agitating airport employees from impeding the functioning of airports, All India Trade Union Congress leader Gurudas Dasgupta said: "We'll not obey any court orders." A sentiment echoed by CPI leader D Raja.
Meanwhile, the trade union leaders are trying to meet Civil Aviation Praful Patel in view of the alleged police assault on the agitating workers.
Meet with PM
"The prime minister has made an appeal to call off the strike; we are meeting to consider the issue very seriously," M K Ghoshal, convenor of All India AAI Employees' Joint federation, had said on Friday after a 90-minute meeting with the prime minister.
Sources, however, said that the prime minister had told the employees categorically that the decision to privatise and modernise the Delhi and Mumbai airports would not be called off. He said this to the union leaders after they made a request to adopt the alternative plan submitted to the government for developing the two airports.
This, apparently, has not gone down well with the Left Front and that is why it has stated that the strike will continue.
The prime minister had invited the AAI employees forum for discussions on Friday on the strike along with Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
After the meeting, Patel said the prime minister had assured the employees that the Airport Authority of India was not being privatised, as alleged by the employees joint forum. He said the government had also said that no AAI employee would lose their job.
It was pointed out that in the first three years, all AAI employees at the two airports would be employed by the joint venture.
Both GMR-Fraport and GVK-South African Airports consortium -- who have won the modernisation projects for the Delhi and Mumbai airports -- have assured the government that 60 per cent of the employees at the two airports would be absorbed by them after the initial three-year period. The rest could go back to AAI.
Meanwhile, passenger amenities continued to be hard hit at various airports as the strike entered its fourth day on Saturday. Flights, however, operated as normal.
A scuffle broke out between AAI employees and the police in Delhi. The protestors claimed buses bringing employees to the airport were being diverted elsewhere and blocked the road leading to the airport for a short while. Extra police and paramilitary forces were deployed around the airport. The situation was soon brought under control.
In Mumbai, the employees continued their demonstration in front of the terminal.
Additional inputs: PTI, BS