Late on Tuesday evening, after the Bombay High Court had asked the unions to withdraw the strike and to agree to the interim relief, the BEST unions held a meeting among themselves to discuss the way further.
All measures taken over a period of eigth days to placate the protesting BEST employees union failed on Tuesday. “We shall continue the strike,” transport union leader, Shashank Rao said. Rao, president of the BEST Sanyukta Kamgar Kruti Samiti (BKKS) has been spearheading the strike.
Late on Tuesday evening, after the Bombay High Court had asked the unions to withdraw the strike and to agree to the interim relief, the BEST unions held a meeting among themselves to discuss the way further.
After the meeting, the unions claimed that due to the state government’s high-handness, the fate of the BEST employees could end up like that of mills in Mumbai. Rao said, “The government wants us to sign a death certificate for workers by accepting their proposal. It wants us to accept the points meant for rationalisation of BEST. This is unacceptable; the employees will lose their jobs in the long run.”
“They have not spoken anything about the merger of the BEST and BMC budgets that we demand,” Rao said. The unions are of the view that accepting the economic measures proposed by the civic body and the BEST will lead to problems for the workers in long run.
Day 8 of the strike on Tuesday saw nearly 340 extra buses run by the NMMT, MSRTC and private buses. The BEST attendance continued to be less than one per cent. Crowded trains continued to inconveinience people with over 50,000 extra commuters using the services.
SOME BEST MEASURES FOR RATIONALISATION
- Wet lease of buses wherein over 1,200 buses will be leased on contract in order to reduce the cost of maintaining the buses, as the BEST claims. Scrap half the fleet.
- Freezing Dearness Allowances and other incentives of employees to control manpower costs
- Merging BEST budget with the BMC to share financial burden
- Cancel 150 bus routes that are loss-making
- Stop free travel of policemen, staff members, school children and senior citizens
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