Tamil Nadu transport workers withdraw strike temporarily

The Tamil Nadu government transport workers, who have been on indefinite strike since the last three days, on Saturday decided to call off their strike for now and resume work.

The Confederation of All Transport Employees Unions, comprising nine trade unions, commenced the indefinite strike on February 25 demanding that the state government conclude the 14thwage revision talks immediately. It also demanded pending terminal benefits of workers retired since 2020 and non-allocation of funds in the budget to compensate the losses incurred by the corporation which is a service sector.

The strike was withdrawn following tripartite talks between the trade union leaders, state transport officials and labour department authorities here on Saturday evening.

"All the trade unions involved in the strike have decided to withdraw the strike and to defer the strike till a new government is in place after the April 6 Assembly election," M Shanmugam, general secretary of Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), affiliated to the DMK, told reporters here.

He said the unions have resolved not to cause any inconvenience to the members of the public as the election commission's model code of conduct has come into force.

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"We will pursue our demands when a new government is formed after the election," he added.

CITU, AITUC and INTUC are also among the unions that had participated in the indefinite strike.

At the talks held here, the state government assured them an interim relief of Rs 1,000 for workers in lieu of wage revision, till the negotiations are completed.

Further, the officials reportedly assured them that disciplinary action will not be taken against workers who were on strike for three days nor their wages deducted from salaries during the strike period.

Following this, the trade unions announced withdrawal of strike with immediate effect.