Striking Indian airport workers broke windows and scuffled with security staff as they stayed off the job for a second day on Thursday to protest privatisation plans, officials said.
Most flights took off, although passengers were greeted by the smell of garbage and clogged toilets at main airports across the nation as a result of the action by the 22 000-member Airports Authority of India Employees Union.
Many planes were grounded on the first day of the strike by the workers who handle cargo, baggage, cleaning and maintenance, but on Thursday, officials said that while cargo piled up, flight schedules were largely unaffected.
“All flights are normal,” said Mumbai airport director RJ Treasurywala. But television reports said some flights were delayed.
A New Delhi airport official also said that flights were running according to schedule, but outside the domestic terminal, scores of striking workers blocked the main approach road, battled with security men and smashed windows.
The blockage of the access road forced passengers to walk long distances to the terminal.
“The road blockade will continue indefinitely,” said Joy Lal, the joint general secretary of the striking union.
In Kolkata, where the biggest disruptions were reported on Wednesday, thousands of strikers and supporters protested outside the airport, forcing the cancellation of some flights and the rescheduling of others.
The strike, which pits the leftist parties against their ruling Congress coalition allies, was splashed on newspaper front-pages. “Airports become no-frill zones,” said a headline in .
Scores of police in riot gear stood guard outside the main airports in a bid to avert violence sparked by the plans to privatise the dilapidated airports as a way of getting the money to modernise them.
In Mumbai, security men herded hundreds of strikers to a car park, away from the airport entrance which was the scene of clashes the previous day.
The protests began on Wednesday, a day after the government announced Indian construction firm GMR Industries and Germany’s Fraport had won a bid to privatise and revamp Delhi airport. India’s GVK group and the South African airport authority won the right to privatise and upgrade Mumbai airport.
The government has estimated it could cost up to $4,5-billion to raise the airports, which handle around 50% of India’s passenger traffic, to world class standards.
The airports, notorious for their congestion and shabby looks, need a complete overhaul including new shopping concourses and runways.
Plans to privatise the airports have been stalled for years amid opposition by workers who fear job losses.
The Communists, who provide vital outside support to the Congress coalition, have demanded the government review its privatisation decision, saying it goes against its promise not to sell off money-making public companies. They say the money to modernise the facilities could have come from public funds.
“The government has taken a very wrong decision,” said Brinda Kharat, senior member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). – AFP