Commuters were left stranded in various parts of Tamil Nadu on Sunday evening as crew members belonging to transport corporation unions affiliated to opposition parties went on a strike ahead of the originally announced date (Monday, May 15) after talks over wage revision and other demands failed. Only members of the ruling party’s Anna Thozhirsanga Peravai continued to operate bus services.
Transport unions had called for an indefinite strike from May 15, but advanced it by a few hours after the transport corporations sought an undertaking from crew members who turned up for work that they will continue to report for duty for the next three days. Many bus depots witnessed frayed tempers with passengers confronting the crew members. Commuters had to turn to private bus operators and board trains to complete their journey. The Southern Railway added coaches to its services and also introduced additional trains to meet the demand.
In Madurai, a 34-year-old passenger was reportedly beaten up by two striking crew members of a TNSTC bus after he questioned them for preventing another driver from operating a Tiruchendur-bound bus.
At Karamadai in Coimbatore district, Arumugam, a bus conductor, was taken into custody for pelting a TNSTC bus with stones. Tourists in hill stations like Udhagamandalam were put to severe hardship as a result of the strike.
In Kancheepuram, a poster war of sorts erupted between the striking unions and the Anna Thozhirsanga Peravai, with the former announcing the strike and the latter pasting posters saying buses would ply as usual.
On Sunday evening, trade union leaders emerging from talks with Transport Minister M. R. Vijayabhaskar at Pallavan House here said that the indefinite strike will begin from Monday as the government could not guarantee the rights and benefits of transport workers.
“The government did not reply when we demanded that it should compensate for the loss incurred by the transport corporations. The government did not give any guarantee on resolving the financial crisis of the corporations,” said A. Soundararajan, general secretary, CITU.
Ten unions, including the DMK-affiliated LPF, CITU, AITUC and HMS, had announced an indefinite strike.
Meanwhile, the Transport Minister insisted that the government was making all efforts to thwart the strike. “Out of the 44 trade unions, only 10 are going on strike. We will operate the buses as usual. We are engaging retired employees of the transport corporations as well as new drivers to overcome the crisis,” he said.
