Busmen to decide on stir before Nov 2

Trade unions indicated that they will wait for two days, saying they would finalise and clarify their stand on striking work on November 2.

Their protest could be the second such instance in a year, when State-run buses kept off roads following their eight-day strike in January.

Emerging from a tripartite meeting involving the Labour Department and officials of various State transport undertakings (STUs), trade union representatives said the government was “pushing” them towards a strike.

They said officials remained non-committal on implementing demands, including paying Deepavalli advance, besides revoking disciplinary action against some employees, as agreed upon earlier.

These discussions have been going on for some time and the employees are not threatening to strike work just ahead of Deepavalli (November 6), they added.

They said they will wait till November 2 before making a concrete announcement on striking work. STU employees had earlier struck work in December last on wage revision issue, and called it off just three days ahead of Pongal festival in January.