Transport workers call off strike while KSRTC employees threaten to go on strike from March 24

Team Udayavani, Mar 19, 2023, 8:22 AM IST

Bengaluru: The transportation workers’ strike called for March 21 in Bengaluru has been called off after a meeting between the transport organization leaders and KSRTC Managing Director Anbu Kumar. However, a faction of the KSRTC employees has announced that they would go on strike from March 24.

The strike was called under the leadership of labor leader Ananth Subbarao, who had demanded the reinstatement of dismissed employees, an increase in annual salary, and fulfillment of their other demands.

Following the meeting, promises were made to reinstate the dismissed employees, increase annual salary, and address the workers’ demands, leading to the withdrawal of the strike called by eight trade unions.

However, there seems to be no end to the woes of transport workers as the faction of state president of the state KSRTC employees’ union Chandrasekhar, has announced an indefinite transport strike on March 24. The like-minded forum of transport corporation employees has also declared a strike on the same day to resolve all the problems faced by the employees in the four corporations of the transport organization.

The demands of the workers include fair and equal wages as per the written promise given by the government, effective from January 1, 2020, and the urgent conduct of labor union elections. They have also demanded the abandonment of all plans to complement the ongoing privatization of the transport agency.