MUMBAI: The
BEST Workers Union is conducting a poll of thousands of its employees at 27 bus depots across Mumbai on Friday to get a consensus on whether to go on indefinite bus strike from Saturday midnight or call off the agitation.
A section of workers from rival union tried to disrupt the poll process at a few depots, alleged BEST Worker’s Union leader Shashank Rao.
He said that the union has also registered a non cognisance complaint for the incident at
Wadala depot this morning. “Similar attempts were made to thwart the election process at
Gorai and
Goregaon depots the afternoon. But we got support of the local police who ensured that the poll goes uninterrupted till late afternoon,” he said.
The police were deployed in large numbers outside the depots where BEST workers, specially drivers and conductors came forward to cast vote for taking a call on the proposed 'indefinite strike'.
BEST committee chairman Anil Patankar has appealed to workers not to go on strike as it will inconvenience thousands of commuters who are now coming back to BEST buses after the fare cuts. The
Shiv Sena union is not part of the strike call and has been meeting staffers since Thursday evening to persuade them to stay away from the poll.