Contract workers stage protest against airport management

Addressing the protesters Association Member Krishnananda said that several local people working in the airport on contract basis since many years.

Recently the contractor who took the responsibility of maintaining the old airport has removed several locals working at the airport.

He said that so far seven have lost their job. “The people who have been sacked belong to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and backward communities. Many are those who have got job because they had lost their land to the Airport expansion project,” claimed Krishnananda adding that though they had met the Mangalore Airport Director M R Vasudeva a couple of times and brought this issue to his notice he has not paid any heed to it.

“We felt that he was supporting the move of the contractor. When we pleaded with him to help the workers, he told us that he will be employing workers from Jharkhand and other states who are willing to work at much lesser salary,” alleged Krishnananda adding that the Mangalore Airport Director M R Vasudeva himself is against the local work force.

The Samiti said that the contract of the new airport too has been given to the same contractor and even here the conspiracy of cutting down on local workers is going on relentlessly.

The Samiti said that even if the contractor is changed, priority should be given to
the workers who have been working in the airport from so many years and measures should be taken to safeguard their interest.

Authorities should take steps to stop the harassment of workers by higher officials, dissolve the contract of the present contractor who has been meting out injustice at the workers and provide all facilities that the workers deserve to get legally.

Another member of the Mangalore Airport Workers Association said that the security of the airport is at stake as the workers are being recruited by the authorities without the very necessary Police Clearance Certificate (PCC).

Protesters shouted out slogans against the MangaloreAirport Director M R Vasudeva , the contractor and the system existing at the airport management level.