Bus drivers with the Municipal Transport Corporation (MTC) in Chennai went on a brief strike on Monday, May 29, angered by the administration’s decision to employ around 500 private bus drivers on a contractual basis. The contract employees are scheduled to start their tenure from Tuesday, May 30. Though the sudden strike in the evening caused worry among commuters for a few hours, it was later withdrawn after Transport Minister SS Sivasankar initiated talks with transport unions.
According to MLA A Soundararajan, the unions withdrew the protest after the minister highlighted to them that the sudden protest would lead to chaos in the city. “Bus drivers began the strike after 5 pm in the evening, which is the rush hour. This would have led to several office goers getting stranded. The unions have therefore only temporarily withdrawn their strike. They plan on announcing another protest soon to ensure that their grievances are addressed,” he said.
Though the strike was short-lived, its effect was still felt by commuters in bus depots including Koyambedu, T Nagar, Avadi, KK Nagar, and Anna Nagar among others. Hundreds of commuters were left stranded for a few hours and traffic police were deployed to control crowding in the depots and adjacent roads.