Airport Fills With Filth as 1,900 Housekeepers Stage 18-Hour Strike

A Mumbai airport strike of housekeeping workers prompted disgruntled flyers to leave a stink across social media.

Housekeeping workers at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (BOM) staged a flash strike last week, leaving the busy Mumbai airport teeming with trash. Passengers littered pictures of the stinking mess all over social media.

“The strike was only for three hours,” BOM spokeswoman Veena Chiplunkar wrote in an email to FlyerTalk. “It did not have much impact as emergency team was deployed, immediately.”

Reports, however, suggest the strike lasted much longer — about 18 hours. Chiplunkar declined to comment further on the strike and its resolution.

According to the Press Trust of India, upwards of 1,900 housekeeping employees participated in the strike, demanding wage increases. The employees returned to work the following afternoon after being assured by management that they would receive wage increases within the next two days.

“They have not increased our payments for the last eight years in spite of repeated pleas from our side to do so,” an unidentified employee who is affiliated with the housekeeping workers’ union told PTI.

BOM hired Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL), a joint venture between Indian infrastructure conglomerate GVK and Airports Authority of India, to outsource the housekeeping to Krystal Integrated Services, which employs the workers.

[Photo: Twitter/@rakeshkatyan]