Even as the government was holding negotiations with most of the trade unions, a major section of the transport corporation workers went on a flash strike on Thursday evening, leaving thousands of passengers stranded across the State.
Around 5 p.m., even as it became clear that the 11th round of talks between leaders of the 45 transport workers unions and officials led by Minister M.R. Vijayabaskar was heading towards failure, information was leaked from the meeting room leading to the flash strike.
And as expected, the talks failed a few hours later as the government rejected all the demands of the unions. The unions announced that the strike will continue till their demands are met.
“The government did not agree to our demand for 2.57% wage hike once in three years. Instead, the officials were for 2.40%. After deliberations, they revised it to 2.44%, which is not acceptable to the trade unions,” said Labour Progressive Front (LPF) leader M. Shanmugham. The government was for fixing minimum wages at ₹17,700. Our workers disagreed and decided to continue with their strike option.” CITU leader A. Soundararajan said the finance department has not provided any advice to increase the revenue of transport corporations.
‘No other option’
“The workers are not to be blamed for the current financial crisis. Though we are not in favour of strike, we have no other option except to resort to strike,” he said. Stating that they were open to negotiations, he cautioned against any move to crush the strike which would have “disastrous consequences”.
