Airport workers have threatened to shut down Sheremetyevo I and II unless the government gives in to its demands to privatize the airport's 50 Aeroflot planes.


It is the first time in Russia that airport workers are demanding that the government fulfill its promise to allow workers the option to own 51 percent of currently state-owned assets.


Sergei Simyonov, vice president of


the Flight Personnel Association of Russia, said the union voted last week to strike if union leaders and the officials at the Transportation Ministry can't come to an agreement within the next two months.


"The strike would affect the 10, 000 workers at the airport and could paralyze all flights", said Simyonov, adding that the union represents 1, 000 workers at Sheremetyevo and 7, 000 workers nationwide.


But according to Sergei Koshalev,


head of the Ministry of Transportation's economic reform department, the government is backing off from its original hardline and now supports the union's demands.


According to Simyonov, the government wants to allow workers 25 percent of all future shares in the airplanes - the prices of which have yet to be determined - while the government would retain 30 percent. But the union wants to have 51 percent of all shares.