SLCTB union wants private bus owners to support July 10 strike

The All Ceylon Transport Workers’ Union has requested private bus operators to cooperate in the planned July 10 general strike by keeping their vehicles off the road.

In a letter addressed to the presidents of private bus associations, the union, which belonged to the State run SLCTB, said it had decided to support the general strike demanding a Rs. 5,000 salary increase for all workers and requested the private bus operators too to lend their support.

The letter stated that it was the working class that commutes in buses while the 20 per cent rich people, who plunder the wealth of the 80 per cent of poor masses, never use the public transport.

The Union said the prices of everything had registered an upward trend except the salaries of the public, private and estate sector workers who are undergoing tremendous hardship in the face of the unbearable cost of living and it was only through a general strike that the government could be made to realize its folly.