AAI employees' strike hits cargo services

Cargo services continued to be affected on Friday as its 1,500 employees struck work for the third day, protesting against privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports.

AAI sources said that cargo was piling up at the Chennai airport, since there were a number of procedures to be completed before clearance, which was taking time. Officers, who have been working overtime for the past three days, were now finding it difficult to cope with the operations, they said.

Though the management has employed casual labour to clear garbage and clean toilets, garbage continued to pile up.

Many passengers said they had to wait for nearly two hours to get their luggage out of the airport, since there were no employees present.

AAI's National Airports Division regional director Dr Ramalingam told that air services at all airports in South India remained unaffected. However, some passengers complained of flight delays.

The airport employees were staging demonstrations in front of the airport complex.

Meanwhile, AAI Employees Union president P Mahendran said employees did not oppose modernisation per se. "We have the expertise and experience. AAI has a reserve fund of more than Rs 3,000 crore and all 22,000 employees are willing to contribute between Rs one lakh and two lakh. Why should the government then go for FDI?," he asked.