BEST strike enters Day 4, its longest stir in decades

MUMBAI: The BEST bus strike has created dubious history by entering the fourth consecutive day on Friday—the longest in decades—the last being the 1997 stir that stretched for three days.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray’s last-ditch attempt to break the deadlock, in the presence of mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, failed on Thursday night. “The talks, which went on for four hours, yielded no concrete results. They have not given the union any proposal or offer which can fulfil our demands. So, workers will continue the strike indefinitely,” said Shashank Rao of BEST Workers’ Union, after the meeting at the mayor’s Shivaji Park bungalow.

Meanwhile, sources said more BEST electricity wing workers went on strike on Thursday, which could affect the power supply department; more than 50% of its staff is absent.

Rao said BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta has refused to go ahead with the primary demand of merging BEST and civic budgets. Rao further said the union has petitioned chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and expects a favourable proposal from him, which can redress workers’ grievances.

“We will have a melava (meeting) of all workers tomorrow and they will decide on the future course of action. We will not give up the fight unless we get a proposal or offer in writing,” he said. The meeting was also attended by the civic chief and BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagde.

The other demands include bonus payment, gratuity to former staffers, staff quarters issues and those regarding gradation of junior staff, for which no proposal was made.

Rao said the union was not interested in approaching any political platform for redressal. “We, however, don’t mind if the chief minister intervenes to issue directives to authorities to look into our demands. But we don’t want to approach any politician directly.”

The strike has caused strife to lakhs over the past three days, with complaints pouring in from every nook and corner of the city. Many have taken to social media to seek government intervention to end the unprecendented crisis.

On Thursday, the BEST management invoked MESMA (Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act) against 58 more staffers from the electricity wing and registered cases at five police stations, taking the total to 358 employees booked under this Act. It also issued 333 contempt notices for defying the industrial court order, which restrained workers from going on strike. Not a single bus operated though.

The union also expressed its anger over the eviction notices served at staff quarters a day earlier. Hundreds of women residents from these quarters along with union activists took out a morcha to Wadala bus depot, to raise their voice against the notices. A woman protester said, “It is not fair to ask employees to vacate houses if they join a strike or raise demands for their rights.”

A delegation also met MNS chief Raj Thackeray. BMC opposition leader Ravi Raja said he will move an adjournment motion to stop the proceedings of the BEST committee meeting scheduled on Friday, to show “no confidence” for the management action to issue notices.

BEST deputy general manager R J Singh said the electricity wing was not affected though. “There was a drop in attendance due to the strike. But there was no power supply related problem nor did we face any difficult attending to complaints from consumers,” he added.