On the second day of the strike called by transport trade unions, the Coimbatore Division of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) on Friday operated around 52% of buses in Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts.
Transport officials said that out of 864 town and mofussil buses available for Coimbatore district, only 454 buses (52.5%) were operated on Friday. This marked a decline from Thursday as around 663 buses or around 76% were operated in the district.
As of Friday, hiring contract employees to operate the buses in Coimbatore district has not been finalised, the officials said.
In Tiruppur district, only 258 buses (52.1%) out of the total 495 town and mofussil buses were operated on Friday.
About 40 contract employees for the positions of drivers, conductors and supervisors were hired to operate buses in Tiruppur district as the permanent employees went on strike. The number of contract employees might be changed depending on the availability of TNSTC employees, according to the officials.
As many as nine Opposition trade unions - LPF, CITU, AITUC and INTUC called for a State-wide strike from Thursday accusing the State government of not completing the wage talks.
