No breakthrough in talks with transport unions

However, the government officials have informed the union leaders that they would form a committee and a leader from each of the unions will be made a member to speed up the talks to end the issues. However, the union members stressed the officials that all the arrears should be cleared, for which the officials said that they would form a committee regarding this. 

A Soundararajan, president of Tamil Nadu State Transport Employees Federation, said that the officials in the last meeting assured that employees, who were absent during the May 15-16 strike, would be marked as present. “However, the officials made u-turn, but we insisted on this issue and they finally relented,” he said. They had also explained administrative faults, he added. 

Natarajan, secretary, LPF, said that they have demanded the officials to fulfil 32-charter points, which have already been agreed by government. “The officials have also agreed to pay attention on these issues before holding talks on June 1, in which transport minister MR Vijayabhaskar is likely to chair,” he said. The leader also warned that if their demands were not met, they would not hesitate to go on strike and considering this, the government should come forward to pay heed to their grievances.

Meanwhile, the officials have promised to issue a Government Order (GO) to release Rs 500 crore and the officials are expected to accelerate the process. 

Leaders from 11 transport unions like Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), CITU and AITUC participated in the meeting. The talks were held in Chromepet Transport Centre in the presence of transport secretary P Kamble and assistant secretary, Finance, Venkatesh and Managing Directors of MTC. 

When contacted, a senior official, who was in the panel, said that they were patiently hearing all the grievances aired by the union leaders. “We will heed and fulfil their demands gradually,” he said.