Minister Shibu Baby John, who is slated to assume charge of the Labour portfolio on Monday, deprecated the strike by joint action council of motor workers union on Friday.
Addressing a press conference, the Minister said that government had forgone annual revenue of Rs. 130 crore to bring down the petrol prices and urged the unions to call of their strike. However, they chose to paralyse the State within 48 hours of the new government assuming office, without even allowing the government the customary 'honey moon'.
Mr. John said that the Opposition was using the workers as a political tool. Most of those who had struck work on Friday were those operating diesel vehicles. It was also notable that there had been no strike in Tripura or Tamil Nadu over the hike.
He said that strike like this would only help to increase public ire against workers. Though Kerala had industrial peace in Kerala, the State still had a bad name because of certain practices in the labour sector. These needed to be corrected.
The Minister said that that collection of 'Nookkukooli' by loading and unloading workers was nothing but extortion. It would not benefit the workers in the long run.
