Powermen's strike brings city to a halt

CHANDIGARH: Employees of UT electricity department struck work on Tuesday bringing the city to a standstill. The strike went on from 11 pm on Monday till 7.30 pm the
next day.
The strike was held against the Chandigarh administrationa's hard stance towards the demands of the power employees, including withdrawal of the proposal to corporatize/privatize the department, filling up of over 600 vacant posts, procurement of cables, joints, transformers and other urgent material, removal of pay anomalies between senior and junior employees, release of DA installments besides implementation of other long pending demands of the UT Powermen Union.
Union general secretary Gopal Datt Joshi said despite notice given by the union to the administration, none of the demands listed in the charter have been implemented. The union had earlier given notice to strike on July 12, but deferred it to July 30 to give sufficient time to the administration to consider their demands.