AAI staff threaten strike on Feb 26

At least 18,000 employees of the Airports Authority Employees Union (AAEU), the only registered union of the airports authority staff, have threatened to go on a countrywide strike on Tuesday.

"If the government does not heed to our demands, then the strike will be indefinite," said MK Ghosal, general secretary, AAEU.

The union has sent notices to the civil aviation ministry, regional directors of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and to the secretary of civil aviation, according to Dilip Gurjar of the AAEU.

The strike would impact all the operations of the airlines. The union has threatened strike if its demand for continuing the employees' present permanent jobs with the state-run AAI is not heeded to and they have to join private airport operators like Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).

The closure of the AAI airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore once the greenfield airports become operational in the cities next month is also an issue with the AAI employees.

"The existence of AAI is under threat. The government can have greenfield airports by all means but it should allow the AAI to have a level-playing field," said Ghosal.

The delay in awarding the AAI the mini-ratna status is also a bone of contention.

The employees also are ruing the fact that when the government was contemplating the policy for the non-metro airports, these airports were to be handed over to the AAI to manage.

But now the AAEU alleges that the government has also granted the terminal handling to the private parties sidelining the assurance that except city side all functions will be carried out by the AAI employees.

The fact that only 150 of the employees out of a total of 2,500 at the Mumbai airport have accepted the MIAL offer to join the operator indicates that there are no takers for the MIAL offers. The MIAL and DIAL had to make offers within three years of operations at the airports for a total of 5,000 employees.

A MIAL spokesperson said, "We are prepared with our contingency plans. We will outsource the housekeeping services and also call in agencies for security assistance and also with assistance for the baggage handling."

But since the staff to have called for the strike also performs the emergency and the maintenance jobs at the airside, there might arise a situation when airlines might have to stall operations if there is not adequate emergency preparedness at the airports.