However, the union leaders said all the counters to pay EB bills would remain closed and 70 per cent of the workers would take part in the strike. The token strike could continue further if a proper settlement is not found to the wages and workload issues. Talking to reporters here, the Minister appealed to the leaders of CITU, BMS and NLO, who had announced a strike on Friday. He said people need not be afraid of power disruptions since the government had taken all steps to maintain power supply. 

All counters for paying electricity bills would function as usual, the Minister said and pointed out that the DMK union had not joined the strike since the workers are confident that they would get the wage hike. The Minister also noted, “The negotiations on work load and pay revision will be completed in a week and increased wages will be announced. Out of the 14 unions only three of them are taking part in the strike. But even as negotiations are on, they should not resort to the strike.” 

Declining the Minister’s plea to drop the strike, the leader of joint action committee of Tangedco workers, SS Subramani, said the strike would be held as planned. He complained that the three unions were not properly invited for talks. He also said the workers would not be afraid of losing a day’s salary.  The workers said although power supply would not be disrupted, repair works in case of power cuts due to technical faults would not be attended to by the workers. Regular works of giving new power connections would also not begin. Tangedco would not collect money for EB bills, the unions added.