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| Tuesday, 3 February 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| PM's delegation - unions talks collapse : Marapana puts spoke in the wheel As leaders of striking trade unions and a high powered Prime Ministerial delegation were reaching a settlement of the one-week long rail strike yesterday afternoon, Transport Minister Thilak Marapana had arrived and allegedly prevented a resolution of the strike, which is crippling business and industry and causing great hardship to over 300,000 commuters, trade union sources told the Daily News. The 60 striking railway trade unions will stage a mass demonstration opposite the Maradana Railway Station today in support of their demand to withdraw the Railway Authority as their discussions collapsed last night at the last minute with the intervention of Transport Minister Thilak Marapana. The striking trade unions were likely to come to a settlement last night to end their seven-day-long strike, but failed to do so, as the government went back on its word, , trade union sources told the Daily News last night. According to sources, a delegation from the Prime Minister's office had forwarded alternative proposals to the striking trade unions to temporarily suspend the Railway Authority for two years. A team comprising of Lands Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Advisors to Prime Minister R. Paskaralingam and Dinesh Weerakkody had forwarded this proposals to the striking trade unions on the approval of the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The discussions which continued at Temple Trees from 1 pm yesterday collapsed around 8 pm as the representatives of the Prime Minister's office changed its earlier stance after Transport, Highways and Civil Aviation Minister Thilak Marapana's joining them, trade union sources said. "We withdrew from the discussion as the government wanted the Railway Authority and the Railways Department to function in tandem within these two years", K.V. Jayasena the co-convenor of the Trade Union Federation and Trade Union Front said. "We will resort to further trade union action after having a mass demonstration in support of the strike opposite the Maradana Railway station today at 12 noon", he added. "Our membership is not willing to give up the trade union action until the government withdraws the Railway Authority gazette notification", he said. He also denied Railway Authority Chairman's claim that more trade unions are giving up the strike and reporting to work. Meanwhile, Railway Authority Chairman Hemachandra Manatunga told the Daily News last night that arrangements have been made to operate trains to Matara, Galle and Badulla today. He said the officials have taken steps to open the Kalutara, Panadura, Galle, Matara and several other stations yesterday and to operate trains to Colombo. He said more trade unions have informed the Government of their intention of withdrawing from the trade union action. The Train Control office said yesterday only 14 trains operated in the Colombo suburban areas. |
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