Karnataka road transport union calls for strike demanding wage hike from March 24
BENGALURU: Thousands of passengers are likely to be affected as the Karnataka road transport employees, who are on an indefinite protest at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park demanding a wage hike, have called for an indefinite strike from March 24 onwards.
The strike that will affect the services of BMTC, KSRTC, NWKRTC, KKRTC is called by one of the unions — Karnataka Road Transport Employees’ Union — after the government did not respond to their demand of a wage hike. Addressing the media here on Saturday, R Chandrashekhar president of the league said, “We have done all we could to get the attention of the government towards the problems of transport workers. Our employees have not got a wage hike since 2016. During the strike in 2021, the then transport minister Laxman Savadi gave a written assurance that the wages will be revised and said that all our other demands will be fulfilled. But all the promises have remained on paper and our employees are suffering.”
Members of the league said their intention is not to put passengers into trouble.
They said that they were called for a meeting chaired by KSRTC MD Anbu Kumar on March 1 and nothing fruitful emerged out of the meet forcing them to call for the strike.
“We will issue a 14-day strike notice to labour commissioner on Monday. Transport workers will not report to duty from March 24 onwards. We will not budge till our wage hike and other demands that include taking back of dismissed employees who took part in 2021 protest, withdrawal of FIRs filed against the employees and others are met,” said Chandrashekar.
When asked that there is no unity among the four transport workers and unions, Chandrashekar maintained that the indefinite protest from March 24 will prove that the employees are united and they will win this time.