At least 12,000 ground staffs of the public carrier Indian Airlines have gone on an indefinite strike since Tuesday night. The closing down of the ground operation of the airline has been badly disturbed and passengers are in dilemma what to do to tackle the situation. The ground staff has demanded for a wage arrears and a review of their promotion process.

It was not a sudden decision, as the members of the Airport Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) had planned to go on strike on May 17 also. Later, they had dropped the plan because they found the time amicable to talk with government. Now, after the failure of talks between the management and employees union, the employees finally decided to observe indefinite strike since Tuesday night.

Vivek Rao, treasurer of ACEU, said that in view of the pending merger the employees of Indian should be brought at level with the Air India employees. Rampalav, ACEU chairman said that the union would observe the strike until the management accepts the demands.

Passengers are in trouble everywhere because of the strike and they are waiting for the clearance even after half an hour of landing in the airports. They are unable to get their luggage back from the airplanes. The domestic as well as International flights are being affected now because of the strike.

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