CHENNAI: Flash strike halts garbage pick-up

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on May 4, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/flash-strike-halts-garbage-pick-up/271211.html

CHENNAI: Around 2,100 conservancy workers took part in a flash strike on Monday night, disrupting rubbish collection across the city. The workers, employed by a private company, Neel Metal Fanalca (NMF) refused to remove garbage from the city’s four zones from Monday night demanding better wages.

However, the workers ended their strike by noon on Tuesday after timely intervention and subsequent assurance by NMF management. The workers resumed work around 3 pm.

According to civic body sources, NMF workers, who were anxious about their annual increment for the past four weeks, were disappointed after their management continued to maintain silence over the announcement of their annual increment.

As a ripple effect following the flash strike by workers, garbage collection in four zones outsourced to NMF were severely affected since morning.

Sensing trouble if the strike continued beyond a day, Corporation officials sat across the table with the NMF management and workers’ representatives and finalised their annual increment.

Meanwhile, the civic body also fanned out its conservancy staff in the morning to clear garbage backlog at a few important points in these four zones.

According to NMF sources, though the workers had demanded about 20 per cent increment to their salaries, they finally settled for 11 per cent, given the company’s financial condition.

As per the agreement with the Corporation, NMF would remove garbage in four zones of the Corporation under two packages. The first package comprised Triplicane (zone-6) and Adyar (zone-10), and the second package comprised Kodambakkam (zone-8) and Pulianthope (zone-3).