BEST strike in Mumbai ends as it began, with vote

All the drama from the last 24 hours of the protest that crippled one arm of Mumbai's fabled public transport system - BEST

With drama, tears, jubilation and a court order, the BEST's nine-day strike came to an end on Wednesday at an employee congregation in the Wadala staff quarters. Before formally ending the strike, president of the BEST Sanyukta Kamgar Kruti Samiti (BSKKS), Shashank Sharad Rao, asked protesters: "Since we started the strike with a vote, should we end it with one too?" The question was met with a Rao-sing show of hands followed by applause.

Earlier in the day, the BEST workers were at a HC hearing on a PIL on the strike, the BEST Workers' Union agreed to withdraw the stir after accepting the '10-step' increment offered by the management of the civic-run BEST undertaking as an interim measure. An agreement was also reached to resolve the remaining issues through a mediator.

The first BEST bus rolls out of Wadala depot after the strike ended yesterday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Following this, Rao met senior union leaders and later made his way to Wadala where he explained the efforts that led to the victory, after which he took consent from employees to end the strike. Rao expressed extreme displeasure with the Shiv Sena, its BEST committee and affiliated bodies, and thanked HC for its intervention, saying that their demands had been met.

The promised minimum raise of R7,000 for every BEST employee will start from February. As the speech ended, thousands of employees rushed towards Rao to touch his feet. Many others vowed to leave the Shiv Sena union to join Rao's fight.

BKSS president Shashank Sharad Rao celebrates after calling off the strike. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar, Suresh Karkera

The union leader had to then be whisked away in his vehicle amid celebrations of the first bus starting from the Wadala bus depot at 3:50 pm. The nine-day strike, which caused inconvenience to about 25 lakh bus commuters, was the longest-ever in the BEST's history, and led to revenue losses in ticket sales to the tune of over Rs 27 crore.

Among the demands of the workers are merger of the BEST-BMC budget so that BMC could bear BEST's financial liabilities, signing of wage agreements, and bringing junior grade staffers at grade with others. The court has given three months to both parties — BEST administration and BSKKS — to resolve other issues. Court has also appointed F I Rebello, former chief justice of Allahabad High Court, as the mediator between the parties.

BEST employees' wives celebrate the end of the strike

The Shashank redemption
mid-day chatted with BSKKS president Shashank Rao

What made you call off the strike?
The [HC] decision to give us a platform with a mediator and that too in a time-bound manner of three months to get solutions to our grievances proved to be a big victory for us.

What were the initial offers and why were they rejected?
The initial offers were all hogwash. They included privatisation and entailed a lot of unwarranted things involving employees. They were trying to make us sign BEST's death certificate; that is why we rejected it outright.

Did Raj Thackeray, Narayan Rane and others help in ending the strike?
Yes. All of these politicians, including Raj Thackeray, Narayan Rane, Kapil Patil and Nawab Malik, expressed concern and helped mediate in a big way. I'm thankful to all
of them.

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