Train strike called off

by Ananth Palakidnar and Rajmi Manatunga

The Locomotive Operative Engineers Union (LOEU) called off its one week long islandwide strike at 6 p.m. yesterday. The head of the Union I.L.K. Dissanayake told the Daily News that the train service would return to normal from today.

Commenting on the LOEU's decision to call off the strike Dissanayake said that several rounds of talks were held on their demand of rectifying their salary anomalies immediately by establishing a new service for them.

"The strike of the LOEU was launched on August 31 at 12 noon and came to an end exactly after one week. The LOEU called off the strike following the assurance given by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, Railways Minister Felix Perera and Minister Maithripala Sirisena that the demands of the locomotive engineers would be looked into favourably," Dissanayake said.

According to Dissanayake the LOEU has a membership of more than 400 locomotive engineers. For the past one week hundreds of thousands of train commuters suffered due to limited train services.

More than 350 trains used to operate during normal days but when the strike was in progress only 100 to 130 trains were in operation.