Talks fail, RTC staff set to go on strike from June 11

No breakthrough could be achieved in talks held on Friday between the state government and the TSRTC employees unions over the strike called by the unions from June 11 demanding a hike in salary.

Transport minister P. Mahender Reddy held talks with the RTC unions in the Secretariat and urged them to withdraw the strike in the interest of TSRTC but, the unions remained non-committal and said they would make their stand clear on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s warning on Thursday to sack the staff and close the RTC if they went on strike, triggered sharp protests from the unions in all districts. They stuck to their strike call, demanding a hike in pay and said they would not cow down to such threats.

During the talks, the minister informed unions that TSRTC was in huge debt as only 11 depots out of a total of 97 in the state were running in profit. He said that the RTC’s debt burden currently stood at `3000 crore on which it was paying `250 crore interest per year. Besides, RTC had been incurring losses of `700 crore per year.

“If the government approves the salary hike demand, it will put an additional burden of `1,400 crore per year on the RTC, which it cannot afford to bear,” Mr Reddy noted. He urged the unions to work hard to bring the RTC back into profitability first and said the government was ready to extend all the financial assistance for this.

“If you go on strike, a situation will arise where the TSRTC needs to be shutdown unable to bear losses. Let us all work together to strengthen the RTC first and then we can think of salary hikes and other demands,” he suggested.

However, the unions did not give any assurance on withdrawing the strike. Employees Union JAC Chairman Ashwadhama Reddy said, “We will discuss among ourselves the suggestions made by the government on Saturday and make our stand clear, whether to go on strike or postpone it for the time being.”