Airport strike deferred till March 10

NEW DELHI: The nationwide indefinite strike called by airport employees from Tuesday, asking the government to fulfill their charter of demand, has been deferred till March 10 following talks between agitated workers and the Union Civil Aviation Ministry.
    
The Airport Authority Employees' Union announced its decision to defer the strike till March 10 came following Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel requesting the workers to give him some more time for sorting out the matter, AAEU General Secretary M K Ghoshal said after the meeting here.
    
"We have come to this decision after taking into account the problems passengers may face in the wake of the strike. The Minister also requested for more time," he claimed.
    
CITU General Secretary M K Pandhe, who accompanied the union leaders and AAEU President S R Santhanam, said the Minister has assured them that the Tripartiate (government, union and airport operators) meeting will be held to resolve the issues related to the employees of New Delhi and Mumbai airports before March 10.
    
"Government's decision to shut down the existing airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore is totally wrong. It will be absolutely incorrect to close down these airports once the new ones come up there," Pandhe said.
    
Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla and Additional Secretary Raghu Menon was also present at the meeting.
    
Agitated over the "failure" of the government to fulfill its 19-point charter of demands, the AAEU had announced that the employees will go on strike from Tuesday.