BENGALURU: The impact of KSRTC staff strike in Bengaluru was very limited, as the schedule data shared by Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) on August 5, the day of the indefinite strike, showed that more than 90 per cent of the schedules were operated.
The strike, organised by Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Trade Unions of KSRTC, led by AITUC-affiliated KSRTC Staff and Workers' Federation, demanding the state government to hike their wages and settle 38 months' salary arrears. The schedules of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC) and North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) were only around 50 per cent. JAC listed out multiple reasons for the poor response to the strike.
Speaking to TNIE, General Secretary of KSRTC Staff and Workers Federation, D A Vijaya Bhaskar said, “We agree that compared to other bus corporations, BMTC continued their operations and there was limited impact of the strike in Bengaluru. This is majorly because nearly 1,500 new recruits to BMTC were pressed into duty, and the unions did not persuade them to take part in the strike.”
There are more than 3,500 BMTC employees who have returned to their duties after giving an undertaking that they would not take part in any of the strikes. These were the employees who were fired from service after they took part in the previous strike, Bhaskar said.
Further, of the over 6,000 buses, over 1,000 are electric and are operated by the private companies and the drivers of these buses are solely recruited to duty by them. They did not take part in the strike, he explained.
Along with these reasons, Vijaya Bhasakar stated that the confusion among employees about the strike also had an impact.
“We had announced that there would be an indefinite strike from August 5. The state government, in the last minute, a day before the strike, called us for a meeting, which ended in a stalemate. Also, the Karnataka High Court, a day before the strike, directed that the strike be put on hold for a day. So we did not have time to visit every depot, talk to employees, put up posters about the strike”, he said.
Bhaskar said that if the strike had continued for a day, more employees would have joined in, making it a success in Bengaluru too, as the unions are fighting for their cause after all.