The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation’s ( KSRTC) attempt to hand over reservation counters at the 19 bus stations in the State and those in Coimbatore, Mysuru, and Bengalaru to the Kudumbashree Mission was put on hold after employees went on a flash strike to protest against outsourcing.
Hundreds of commuters were put to hardship as the flash strike that began at the KSRTC’s central bus station at Thampanoor in the capital at 9 a.m. spread across the State. The employees, who were opposing the outsourcing move, were present in good numbers in the morning to prevent Kudumbashree members from entering the reservation counters and taking over the task.
As the police intervened to remove the agitators who blocked the reservation counter, more employees reached the bus station. They resisted the attempts of the police to remove them and an altercation followed. In the melee, the operating crew stopped the buses, which soon led to a flash strike and the employees at the other stations followed suit.
The efforts of the management to resolve the issue did not succeed and the issue was taken up at a scheduled meeting of trade union leaders of the KSRTC at the Secretariat chaired by Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran and Labour Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan.
As the trade unions leaders insisted on scrapping the outsourcing of reservation works, the government asked the management to freeze the decision. Following this, the strike was withdrawn around 12 noon. The trade union leaders will meet again to discuss the single duty system on November 7.
Employees of the INTUC, CITU, and AITUC-affiliated unions blocked Kudumbashree workers who came for training at the KSRTC’s training centre at the city garage last week and had snapped the Internet connectivity. The Fort police had registered cases against employees under various sections of the IPC.