Steel Plant workers strike peaceful

Vishakapatnam, Nov  4: Pressing for revision of wages, thousands of workers  belonging to the Visakha Steel Workers’ Union, the  INTUC and the BMS kept away from  their work at  the Vishaka Steel Plant  here  on Wednesday.  Security at the plant has been beefed up in view of  the strike.With the workers under contract system not taking  part in the strike, the management has  made sure that the  key sections  like  the  coke oven,  blast  furnace , and  water supply function as usual. The Management  has  taken every  care to see to it that the workers in this section will work   for  12  hours  to compensate the work  of those who are  on strike.The   unions have however  declared  that  the  strike will be for only one day.

 However, they  reiterated their  demand for 78.2% DA merger, minimum guaranteed benefit of 28%t and wage revision once in five years.As a precautionary measure the  police force  has been deployed  at the main gate and  also at the BC gate.``The strike  has been peaceful so far and no untoward incidents have been reported. But as a precautionary measure we arrested some of the union leaders so that they would not make any provocative statements while addressing the agitated groups,’’the police sources said.