Railway Technical Trade Union to launch 48 hour token strike tomorrow

COLOMBO (News 1^st) - The Railway Technicians Trade union says they will launch a 48-hour trade union action starting from 4 AM tomorrow (May 29). Chairman of the Railway Technical Engineers Association Sampath Rajitha said that on the 9^th of May the salary of the number of grades was increased by 12.1%, by this 12,000 railway employees are now experiencing salary discrepancies and their main objective is to resolve this. He added that this 12% salary increase must be given to all employees of the railway department and that this will be the strike action that will go down in history as the strike action that is supported by all grades of the railway department. However, according to the secretary of the railway drivers association Idinka Dodangoda, Railway operators, drivers, station masters, railway controllers, supervisory managers and a number of other trade unions are not taking part in this strike action. He added that as a result railway operations may not be severely impacted by the strike action. Meanwhile, trade unions attached to the water board staged a token strike action from 9 AM to 1 PM today (May 28). Employees of the head office in Rathmalana, and offices in Dehiwala and Moratuwa participated in the token strike. The trade union action was staged against the failure to increase their salaries at the three-year salary revision. The trade unions collective of the water board said that they will launch an islandwide strike action if the authorities fail to provide solutions.