"We apologize to everyone who is inconvenienced due to the strike. However, we expect Mumbaikars to stand with BEST workers who have served them for years and are now fighting for their rights," said Shashank Rao, president of the BEST Workers' Union.
"We apologize to everyone who is inconvenienced due to the strike. However, we expect Mumbaikars to stand with BEST workers who have served them for years and are now fighting for their rights," said Shashank Rao, president of the BEST Workers' Union.
Lakhs of commuters faced hardship as over 32,000 employees of Mumbai's civic transport undertaking kept away from work for the third day. However, the BEST and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are yet to come to an agreement with the unions over their demands.
On Thursday, the sixth meeting took place between the BEST Sanyukta Kamgar Kruti Samiti (BSKKS) and the administration at Electric House in Colaba. "It went on for two-and-half hours. However, the management has still not given anything in writing in response to the set of demands we have made. If the administration assures us in writing that three of our major demands will be addressed, we will speak to the employees before taking any decision. If they agree, then we will withdraw the strike immediately," added Rao.
However, a certain section of BEST employees is calling the strike the result of 'an ego clash between the top-bosses of BEST, BMC and the union leaders'. When asked about it, Rao said, "I don't think there's any ego clash. We had been facing these issues for the last two years, and the administration has been ignoring them for long. However, if there's any truth in what people are saying, it's very unfortunate"
The unions claimed to have submitted a letter to the administration on December 20 about the workers agreeing to go on strike, yet it received a cold shoulder. The unions claim that the management has not been operating BEST properly and the strike was the final blow.
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