The employees and teachers’ unions spearheading the indefinite strike against the proposed contributory pension scheme, which began on Monday midnight, have claimed that the strike is a major success.
In a joint statement here on Tuesday, the CPI(M)-led Action Council of State Employees and Teachers and the CPI-led Teachers and Service Organisations’ Action Council said that over 80 per cent of the employees had joined the strike disregarding the threats held out by the government.
In a joint statement here on Tuesday, A. Sreekumar and C.R. Joseprakash, convenors of the two action councils, said that the strike brought to a halt the working of over 90 per cent of the village and panchayat offices in the State. The strike also hit the functioning of the offices of the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC), various universities, municipal corporations, municipalities, and majority of schools.
The two leaders said that the employees on strike would not be cowed down by the government’s threat to suspend and transfer the employees. They also asserted that the strike would continue till the government gave up its decision to implement the contributory pension scheme.
In a separate statement, the Federation of State Employees and Teachers Organisation (FSETO) and the Joint Council of State Service Organisations called upon the employees to stay firm in the path of agitation and said that there would be no swerving from the objective of the strike till the government accepted the employees’ demand for scrapping the contributory pension scheme.
