MUMBAI NEWSLETTER

Airport Employees Hold Anti-Privatisation Rally

P R Krishnan

THE employees organised under the Airport Authority Employees Unions Joint Forum held a huge rally in Mumbai on March17. This was one of the biggest  rallies of airport employees against privatisation of airports organised in the recent period. A few other sections of workers also joined the rally as a token of support to the airport employees. Railwaymen from Central Railway under the banner of NRMU, seamen under the banner of Forward Seamen Union and contract workers under the banner of CITU from Bhandup centre participated. Before the rally, a public meeting was held at Santacruz airport grounds, which was addressed among others by the CITU president M K Pandhe and secretaries Jibon Roy and K L Bajaj.

Pandhe in his address pointed out that due to the ongoing privatisation and contractorisation in the public sector, there has been big reduction in the work force. He said that the workforce of 23 lakh workers in the 220 public sector undertakings has now fallen to 19 lakh. There is a reduction of 4 lakh workers due to VRS and privatisation. At the same time the contract workers are increasingly employed even in jobs of perennial nature. Pandhe stressed the need for resisting this process. He congratulated the staff and workers of airports for courageously facing the onslaughts of AAI management and government ploys.

Jibon Roy in his spirited address pointed out that through the recent strike, the airport employees have demonstrated immense resistance power due to which, the government was compelled to give a written assurance and then only the strike was withdrawn last February. Others who addressed the meeting included Sarad Rao, HMKP general secretary and the leaders of Airport Authority Employees Unions Joint Forum M K Ghoshal, Nitin Jadhav and Naresh Lal.

CHINESE DELEGATION VISITS MUMBAI

A four member delegation from China paid a two day visit to Mumbai on March 12-13. The delegation represented the Jiangsu People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. The Mumbai visit was part of the delegation's India visit. Its first day programme was in Delhi.

The delegation was headed by Huang Jiajian, secretary general of the Association and the other members were Huang Xiaoming, in-charge of Protocol Information Division of Yangzhou municipal foreign affairs office, Fang Jun, section chief, and Liu Yiyyang. They came to India at the invitation of Indian Association for Peace and Friendship with China. The delegation was received at the airport by K L Bajaj and P R Krishnan of CITU, Naresh Lal of Airport Employees' Union, Ashok Vasishth, secretary of Indian Association For Peace and Friendship with China and R K Gupta. On the day of the arrival, the delegation had a sight seeing around Mumbai.

On March 12, the CITU Maharashtra state committee had arranged a get-together function with the delegation. This programme was held at Janashakti Hall, Worli, which was chaired by the CITU state general secretary K L Bajaj. In this meeting the participants made queries to the Chinese delegation regarding several issues. The queries raised elicited information ranging from issues such as foreign direct investment, budgetary provisions made for higher education, public sector privatisation and ownership of means of production etc. The delegation’s replies to the queries helped in throwing light on the factual situation in China and rebut the misconceptions being spread by the proponents of privatisation in India. It was a pleasant occasion for exchange of views. Mahendra Singh, secretary of the Mumbai committee of the CPI(M) proposed a vote of thanks.