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| Thursday, 2 October 2003 |
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Railway strike continues by Rajmi Manatunga The United Alliance of Railway Trade Unions yesterday vowed to continue with their strike even as thousands of commuters were left stranded at railway stations islandwide. Convenor of the Alliance Amarasena Weddage told the Daily News that their token strike will be held for 48 hours as planned, following which they will decide whether to go for a full scale strike or not. "A meeting of all 60 employees' unions of the Alliance will be held tomorrow at 4 pm at which all future steps to be taken up will be decided," he said. The train service came to a virtual standstill from Tuesday night with all key fields of work including locomotive drivers, railway guards, controllers and station masters commencing a two-day token strike demanding job security under the newly-established Railway Authority. According to the Railway Main Control room, all long distance train services including those operating from Galle, Matara, Kandy, and Puttalam were cancelled yesterday while trains to Colombo were available only from Rambukkana, Avissawella and Alutgama. Out of the 40 morning trains that usually leave for Colombo, 28 were cancelled leaving schoolchildren and a large number of office crew stranded in stations and bus terminals amidst heavy rains. Offices and ticket counters of all railway stations were closed and a few trains operated from time to time without prior announcement, with the assistance of retired employees. Meanwhile, Railway Authority Chairman P. H. Manatunga told the Daily News they were 'fairly successful' in carrying out a skeleton service for commuters. Admitting that the impact of the strike was more than what they expected, he blamed certain employees for acts of sabotage. "We had made arrangements to collect the keys required to continue the service from the employees once the trains had completed their daily work. But, despite their responsibility to hand over the keys these employees never turned up," he explained. The Chairman went on to say that the unions had no cause to launch a strike when all steps have been taken by the Treasury to meet their demands. Month long discussions between the Transport Minister and the Alliance broke down when the latter decided to resort to trade union action charging the Government of failing to grant their demands on time. These include the grant of all privileges, holidays and salary increments of government servants to railway employees, an extra 75 per cent salary hike, trade union representation at the policy making level of the Authority and a pension and compensation scheme. "We know that many workers are willing to report back to work. But they have been threatened by certain groups who are trying to continue the strike and embarrass the Government," Manatunga said. |
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