TNSTC union conducts poll to hold strike against govt

TRICHY:TNSTC Employee unions of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) are divided over the DMK-backed Labour Progressive Federation's (LPF) plan to stage a strike against the state government for not fulfilling their various demands including wage revision.
The LPF that decided to stage a one-day strike conducted a general poll for the first time on Monday among the employees of the TNSTC across the state to decide whether to hold the strike.But unions like Anna Thozhirsanga Peravai (ATP) opposed the move alleging that the LPF were trying to gain political mileage by raising the issue despite knowing that the process is on to fulfil the demands. The situation arose after the state government failed to take steps to make the 12{+t}{+h} wage agreement for the employees of TNSTC. The three-year duration of the 11th wage agreement that was made in 2010 during the DMK regime, came to an end on August 31 this year. "Despite registering our protests for not entering into the 12th wage agreement, the government is not keen on taking our demands into consideration for the reasons best known to them. The agreement should be renewed once in three years and the salary and other benefits should be revised considering the price hike," D Bharathidasan, general secretary of LPF, Trichy told TOI.
Being the authorised body to hold talks with the government for five years since 2010, LPF decided to register their protest strongly by staging one-day strike. But the uncertainty over the support from the members of other employees unions like ATP, CITU, AICTU and etc as well as the possibility of being subjected to severe departmental action, the LPF conducted a general poll among the TNSTC employees across the state to decide on the matter.
Explaining the reason as to why other unions did not participate in the poll, G Ramalingam, secretary of ATP, mofussil branch, Trichy said, "It was not a general poll because other unions did not cast their vote. Besides, our union is not interested to raise the issue unnecessarily because we hope the state government will surely enact the 12th wage agreement. But the LPF is trying to raise the issue to gain political mileage."
The counting of votes is expected to be held in Chennai shortly. "We will appeal to the court to give permission for staging a strike by submitting the results of the poll. We are not particular about the percentage of wage revision but we want the revision," said R Selvam, former secretary of LPF.