The ‘non-cooperation’ stir saw union workers gather earlier in the day outside the Airport Authority of India’s office and opposite the lawn of departure Gate No. 1 of the airport, operations and management controls of which have been taken over by the GVK-led private consortium, the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL).

However, as the day progressed, hardly any repercussion could be felt on the airport’s normal functioning.

But that did not hold back D N Mathure, AAEU’s regional secretary, who claimed that members of the entire fire department was with the union and workers hired by MIAL to compensate for striking workers were inexperienced to handle contingency operations. “The new recruitments are not well trained as per aviation norms,” said Mathure, claiming that though the Mumbai airport was not affected much, other airports such as Rajkot, Bhavagar, Porbandar and Aurangabad have been hit badly by the stir.

About 1700-1800 workers affiliated to the union have been on stir since Tuesday midnight and according to Dilip Gujjar, AAEU assistant general secretary, the stir will continue indefinitely.

Foremost among their demands is protection of interests of the AAI workers at Delhi and Mumbai airports who do not wish to be transferred to other airports, as the AAI does not manage these airports anymore. They are also protesting against the imminent closure of old airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore once the new Greenfield airports there start their operations.

Despite the ongoing strikle, overall passenger experience on Wednesday did not reveal any kind of inconvenience. On being asked, most said that they faced no problems on arriving at the Mumbai airport. Operations at the international airport also did not face any blockades in particular.

“Those who had not joined MIAL from AAI are on stir,” said Nandkumar Matkar, branch secretary of the Airport Aviation Employee’s Union (AAEU) that is recognised by MIAL and represents employees who took up job offers from MIAL. “MIAL has a contingency plan in place and therefore operations at the airport will not be hampered,” he added.

“But this stir is not just a day’s work and it’s been in the making for a long time as our demands have been suppressed over a long period of time. What you see today is an outcome of all these months of neglect by the management and government policies,” said Kumar Paul, senior superintendent, Fire Services and branch vice president of AAEU.