Flyers Alert! AAI staff to strike on Monday, but things may not get really bad

Hundreds of Airports Authority of India employees will go on a three-day relay hunger strike from Monday to protest against the government's move to privatise six airports, a union representative said.

The Airports Authority Employees Union (AAEU) has also warned that staff would go on mass casual leave from December 28.

The government last month cleared a proposal to manage six airports of Airports Authority of India (AAI) under the public private partnership. The aerodromes are Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru.

In a release, the AAEU said it has been compelled to carry out hunger strike and mass casual leave under the banner of joint forum of union and associations of the AAI.

Employees would go on a relay hunger strike for three days from Monday. "The relay hunger strike will not impact operations which will continue as we don't want passengers to face any kind of inconvenience," AAEU General Secretary B S Ahlawat told PTI.

The AAEU, which represents 9,000 employees, had staged protests across the country on December 4 also against the government's decision.