Countrywide strike stalls India
- From: "Brahman Bhat Lifter" <leudrig3@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 29 Sep 2005 05:56:38 -0700
An attempt to privatize airports gets the wrath of the arsehole and
unproductive govt employees...
Countrywide strike stalls India
IANS[ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2005 11:16:57 AM ]
MUMBAI: Air traffic and financial services were badly affected across
India on Thursday as over one million workers stayed away from work to
protest the government's free market reforms.
All domestic airlines were forced to cancel or curtail services on
major routes as airport workers struck work to protest the
privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports.
Some 20,000 workers of the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI),
which manages 124 airports in the country, were on a daylong strike,
badly affecting domestic as well as international aviation services in
Asia's third largest economy.
"The strike is a complete success," said Nitin Jadhav, joint secretary
of the Airports Authority of India Employees Union.
"Despite the government's attempt to seek outside help to maintain
normal operations, all services have been badly affected," Jadhav told
reporters here.
"We have not called for the strike for our personal gains. We want to
highlight the negative effects of the privatisation of airports. Our
struggle will continue against the move."
Long queues of passengers were seen at the domestic airport of the
country's financial capital to cancel their tickets.
Airlines like Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Indian Airlines cancelled
many of their flight services to and from Mumbai, one of the country's
busiest airports that manages 500 flights every day.
In Delhi, Air Deccan has cancelled its flight to Amritsar and Kolkata.
Jet Airways and Air Sahara also cancelled all their flights to and from
Kolkata and many other eastern Indian cities. Kingfisher Airlines
curtailed daily services by 25 percent.
"I had to go to Kolkata today to attend a conference but there aren't
any service to that city from here," said Vikas Dandekar, a harried
retail industry executive.
"Although I knew that there will be some problem because of the strike,
I hoped that the government will take some measures to mitigate
inconvenience to passengers. It's complete chaos here," he added.
The civil aviation ministry Wednesday said a detailed contingency plan
had been worked out to ensure the normal functioning of airports.
Under the plan, officers from Indian Air Force, Navy and Hindustan
Aeronautics Ltd. were deployed at select busy airports.
Financial services across the country were also hit as nearly one
million public sector bank employees went on a nationwide strike to
protest the proposals to privatise state-run banks.
The strike crippled all banking transactions, including clearance of
cheques across the country.
"The response to the strike is better than what we had expected. We
have got very encouraging reports from all over the country," said
Peter Fernandez, secretary of the All India Bank Officers'
Confederation (AIBOC).
All officers and workmen of the public sector banks and regional rural
banks participated in the strike, said Fernandez, adding that officials
in select private sector and foreign banks had also supported the stir.
Besides AIBOC, eight other bank employees' unions including All India
Bank Employees' Association, National Confederation of Bank Employees,
and Bank Employees' Federation of India supported the strike call.
The strike was called to highlight the Left-supported United
Progressive Alliance government's "reckless free market reforms", said
the union leader.
"We are against the moves to privatise the public sector banks through
divestment or sale of the government's equity and merger and
acquisition among state-run banks," said Fernandez.
All major bank unions have decided to meet in the first week of next
month to draw a roadmap for the future in case Thursday's strike fails
to create any major impact.
The bank workers held noisy demonstrations before the main bank
branches across the country, denouncing the government's economic
policies.
.
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