CEB workers to launch token strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 May 2005, 06:08 GMT]
The Joint Trade Unions Federation of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Tuesday announced that its members would launch a four-hour strike from Wednesday noon in protest of a fresh attempt by the Government to divest one-third share of the CPC to a private sector, sources said.

The Cabinet of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss the CPC issue, sources said

The non withdrawal of the cabinet paper regarding the entrance of a third player into the petroleum market has created suspicion among the trade unions who fear the government intends to go ahead with the earlier proposal of divesting the one third of the share of the petroleum industry to Barath Petroleum Corporation (BPC) of India, sources said.

CEB trade unions demand that the cabinet paper recommending the divestiture of one third of CPC share should be withdrawn. Otherwise workers of the CEB would walk out Wednesday noon on a four-hour token strike in protest, trade union sources said.

Trade unions have already informed the government that one third of the CPC share should be divested with the CPC or a new company, which would be subsidiary of the CPC. However the government has not accepted the demand of the trade unions in this regard nor forwarded any counter proposal, sources said.