Commuters across the state were caught off guard as both local and long distance government buses stopped services early last evening even while talks were still going on. Around 2 crore commuters use bus services across Tamil Nadu.
Transport workers are demanding salaries on par with drivers in other state government corporations. The unions want a 2.57 per cent hike but the government is willing to increase salaries only by 2.44 per cent.
Tamil Nadu has a fleet of 22,500 buses, with 1.4 lakh workers in the state's employment. Chennai accounts for a large share of this with 3,500 buses in the city. Today's strike has taken about 15,000 buses off the roads in Tamil Nadu.
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A Soundararajan, a Centre of Indian Trade Union leader, told NDTV, "We don't want to subject the public to hardship but the government is pushing us. It doesn't want to treat us equally as drivers in other departments. Is our demand unfair? We are not responsible for transport corporations running on losses."With transport being an essential service, any strike will be viewed seriously by the courts. Mr Soundararajan added, "We would explain our plight to the court."
The government said it is holding talks with other drivers and by the evening they expect to bring in a large number of buses by the evening.
