Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

LPG tanker drivers call off Kerala stir

By Our Staff Reporter

SALEM JUNE 7. The drivers and cleaners of LPG tankers, who are on an indefinite strike for the past one week, today decided to withdraw their agitation within Kerala, following a settlement of wages with the owners who operate tankers inside Kerala.

According to S.Ahilan, president of the Namakkal-based Indian National Drivers and Cleaners Union, which has been spearheading the agitation in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and the two Union territories of Goa and Pondicherry, transportation of LPG among the refineries and bottling plants in Kerala alone would be resumed following the agreement on wages reached between a group of owners who operate their fleet within the State and the crew. He claimed that with the assistance from the CITU, the owners and the Indian National Drivers and Cleaners Union could reach the agreement.

However, the intra-State movement of LPG was still affected as the stalemate between the crew and owners continued elsewhere. Mr. Ahilan said that except the CITU, no other union or political party came forward to show their solidarity with the striking crew of the LPG tankers. The CITU had extended moral support to the striking crew at various places in all these four States, he said and denied the owners' charges that the strike was being motivated by a few political parties to reap cheap gains. The owners, he said, had been exploiting the ignorance of the crew for long, which languished in utter poverty.

Meanwhile, there were reports of resistance from the crew against the attempt of a few to operate the ``stranded LPG tankers" with the help of unlicensed drivers in various refineries and bottling plants. The agitating drivers and cleaners removed all the tyres from the tankers that were parked in front of the Perundurai bottling plant to prevent the movement. Tyres in parked tankers were deflated near the Tiruchi plant.

Police were called in at many plants to arrest those who tried to prevent the tanker movement. Nearly 40 drivers and cleaners were detained today at the Karuppur plant in Salem. Mr. Ahilan alleged that the officials concerned at various bottling plants were allowing those who did not have the ``fire endorsement'' certificates, to operate the tankers. "When the crew opposed this, they were being arrested," said Mr. Ahilan.

Meanwhile a spokesman for the owners in Namakkal claimed that only a handful few had accepted to a ``marginal increase'' in the wages for the crew in Kerala. Except the Mangalore refinery, the LPG movement had started showing a gradual improvement from various other destinations, he claimed.

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