Lorry owners resort to flash strike in Madurai

Strike withdrawn after Koodal Pudur police personnel intervene

Owners of lorries used to transport goods from Koodal Pudur railway goods shed here to various warehouses of Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) resorted to a flash strike on Wednesday following a dispute between them and the transport contractors over the quantity of goods loaded in each vehicle.

S. Ramamurthy Stalin, one of the lorry owners, said that the contractors had been refusing to increase the freight charges for long despite the huge increase in diesel cost. Hence, the lorry owners had no choice but to overload the vehicles. But that method too had practical problems as the police began to fine the vehicle owners.

“Though we initially accepted the illegal solution in order to make money, later we realised that we were actually incurring losses due to payment of fine for overloading, besides the wear and tear caused to the vehicles. We also had to face the ire of the public. Even last week, residents of Anaiyur gheraoed a lorry driver for spoiling their road by driving an overloaded truck through it,” he said.

Resolution Therefore, the general body of Madurai Good Shed Warehouse Lorry Owners Association met here on December 24 and passed a resolution that its members shall not permit overloading of their vehicles from January 1. “But today when we refused to overload our vehicles, the contractors engaged other vehicles to transport the goods and it led to an altercation between us,” Mr. Stalin added.

The issue was solved and the strike was withdrawn after Koodal Pudur police personnel intervened and solved the dispute by stating that none of the vehicles should be overloaded.