Airport strike: Yechury to meet PM

Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo member, along with leaders of the Airport Authority of India employees' union, will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday evening to sort out the problem arising out of the government's decision to impose the Essential Services Maintenance Act on the airport employees to stop them from going on a strike.

Talking to newsmen in Delhi, Yechury said: "If ESMA is resorted to, then it becomes a political issue and is no longer that of privatisation alone. We will come to the streets and fight tooth and nail."

He said that he was earlier prevented by the Delhi police from speaking to the airport employees.

He clarified that the CPI(M) was not against modernisation, but was opposed to the privatisation of the modernisation of airports.

"A confrontation between the government and the airport employees will be inevitable if the government keeps to its path," CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said.

The warning by the leftist leader, who is also all India general secretary of All India Trade Union Congress , comes ahead of the opening of the financial bids of private consortia for the modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai.

AITUC leaders that they will support the AAI employees' strike against privatisation and join hands with them in this protest. Asked whether the airport employees would carry out the threat to disrupt air services nation-wide if the bids were opened, he said the decision would be taken by the employees themselves.

"Agitation, however, has become inevitable in view of the government's stand on the issue. A fight with the trade unions on the question has also become inevitable," he said.

Stressing that none of the trade unions will accept private participation in airports, he said they would go for 'greater agitation if necessary.'

The AAI Joint Forum has threatened to disrupt air services nationwide if the government went ahead with its privatisation bid and said would even consider closure of all airports, responsibility of which, they said, would squarely lie on the government.

With inputs from: PTI