Railway Station Masters’ strike ends
The 48 hour token strike launched by Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters’ Union SLRSMU from Monday midnight came to an end last night.
The members of the SLRSMU had resorted to trade union action as the management of the Sri Lanka Railways continued to ignore their demands for years, General Secretary of the union W. Amarasena said.
‘Our strike was a success. What we wanted was to draw the attention of the railway management to our demands. We have no hesitation that they are concerned as the railway department incurred a huge loss of income as our members did not issue railway tickets during the token strike,” he added.
The main demands of the SLRSMU are: Implement salary revisions granted to Station Masters through 6/2006 circular, absorb 200 SMs back to Grade 11 from Grade 111 as they had been recruited for Grade 11, grant approved salary increments to SMs and fill vacancies in the SM service.
The 48 hour token strike was only a warning against the attitude of the railway management headed by GMR Lalithasiri Gunaruwan. The SLRSMU will take drastic trade union action if the railway management continues to ignore its just demands, Amarasena said.
“We did not want to disrupt the train services and put commuters in difficulty. Our objective was to send a warning to the railway management without troubling commuters. The two day loss to the department must be in the region of several million rupees. They must realize that this is only the beginning,” he stressed. The Executive Committee of the union will meet on February 17 to discuss the next course of action to win its demands, he added.
By Sandun A Jayasekera
Source: Daily Mirror
Tags: commuters, general secretary, railway management, railway ticket, railways, salary, salary increments, salary revisions, station masters, strike, token strike, trade union, trade union action, train services, vacancies
