THE PRIME Minister's appeal notwithstanding, AAI unions continued their strike on Day Three but with a hint that it may be called off on Saturday morning after an inter-union meeting.
The convener of the AAI Employees' Joint Forum, M.K. Ghosal, told reporters after a meeting with the representatives of various unions that the decision on whether or not to continue with the strike would be taken after another meeting on Saturday.
On Friday, following a 90-minute meeting of the unions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said the PM had made it clear that the government would not reverse its decision to modernise the Mumbai and Delhi airports through joint-venture participation.
The PM, he said, had reassured the unions and the Left leaders who backed them that "no employee will lose their jobs".
"The PM has personally appealed to the unions that they should call off the strike," said Patel. "He has reiterated that the AAI is not being privatised."
In addition to the assurances from the two successful bidders -- the GMR-Fraport and GVK-South Africa consortiums -- Patel said "we'll try and speak to them to absorb even more employees".
He repeated his earlier statement that the two consortiums had undertaken to absorb 60 per cent employees,