The strike's over!

Well it took 3 days of chaos, extreme sloganeering and some tough talking by the Prime Minister to bring the strike to an end. By the end of it, it was obvious that most of the strike was propped up by the Left and the union leaders. There were indications that the common AAI employee didn't have much to fight for after many assurances from the Government that their jobs will be protected.

True to their anti-national attitude, the communist MP's actually declared that they would not follow any Court orders and will not let the strike die down, despite most of the AAI staff having returned to work. I pity them. I am sure this was another of those opportunities for them where they could create anarchy and garner votes, and as they see the opportunity slipping away from them, they are trying to come up with reasons to prolong it longer.

the Prime Minister met the staff forum leaders yesterday, and while he spoke of looking into their matter, he made it clear that the process will not be rolled back. And although they had been told a hundred times that their job is protected, maybe they were waiting to hear it from the PM. To be nice, the PM assured them that their proposals will be looked into for the airports modernization, but definitely airports other than Delhi and Mumbai.

Of course the Government's toughened stand, threatening to slap the SUSCA, an international act against disruption in air traffic and harm to airport passengers, considerably brought down the rhetoric of the strikers. Convicted under the act, the guilty could be imprisoned for life. The strike may be over, but i sincerely hope that the least the government can do is cancel their pay for all the days they had been striking. This socialist militant unionism doesnt need to exist in the new India.

Twin offers do the trick for Centre

- Airport employees troop back to work, start cleaning up four-day mess

Airport workers called off their four-day-old ceasework this evening after the government scribbled on a piece of paper promises about job security and a possible role for the state-run Airports Authority of India in the modernisation efforts.

By late evening, the workers had answered their leaders’ call to get back to work at once and were busy cleaning up the piles of garbage and overflowing sewers that had been a feature of air travel in the country since Wednesday.

Signs of the strike’s imminent end had come as early as yesterday when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met union leaders. Government officials later said the employees have been promised job security and a look at alternative development models for airports.

At a meeting with airports union chief M.K. Ghoshal, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta and Citu boss M.K. Pandhe, he handed over a signed letter that pledges a committee to consider proposals for getting airports modernised by the AAI.

Although the letter didn’t spell it out, the commitment can be assumed to apply only to airports other than the two that prompted the strike. The letter also assured the workers against “victimisation of any kind for participation in the agitation”, paving the way for Ghoshal to shortly announce: “I, as convener of the strike, am calling it off.”

Although the government has won the battle of nerves with the unions and the Left, it still has another fight on hand: the legal challenge to the bidding process mounted by the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Airport Developers.

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The Indian Express has been more critical of the strikers and more blunt in their reporting.

Govt writes a face-saver: not to worry, your jobs are safe

His letter said the government would set up a tripartite committee comprising respresentatives from the AAI employees union, the AAI and the Civil Aviation Ministry to “look into the issues and proposals of modernising airports by the AAI and employee issues including their job security”. But, it was silent on the demand to consider the AAI proposals for Delhi and Mumbai.

With the ground slipping under their feet after three of the four associations scaling down their protest, the principal constituent Airports Authority Employees Union agreed to a facesaver.

A section of the employees wanted to carry on the agitation to get more “substantive assurances” but fell in line under the threat that the government would invoke the dreaded SUSCA (Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation) if the stalemate continued any longer.

But the Left was not treating the issue of AAI proposal for the Delhi and Mumbai modernisation plans as a closed issue. Soon after the unions were handed over the letter, they sought to keep hopes alive by pointing to the Reliance petition challenging the bidding process.

AITUC general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta who was present at the meeting with the Minister, claimed that Patel also assured the AAI employees union that there would be no privatisation of other airports in the country. But Ministry sources later said this was not true and was, perhaps, being said to pacify the angry workers.

During a meeting at the CPM headquarters at which party general secretary Prakash Karat was present, Pandhe stood his ground that calling off the strike at this stage would be a surrender.