UMC workers go on strike

said, "We had already served a notice regarding the strike on December 1, but the UMC has not done anything about it." Shool gave a new dimension to the whole problem. "Mayor Ganesh Chaudhary had asked his men in the octroi department to remove Rs 14,000 from the collections," he alleged and added, "When I issued show cause notices to the trio involved I was put under pressure by both the Mayor and Gopal Rajwani (ex-Sena corporator who was dismissed recently for his alleged involvement in an extortion racket) to reinstate them."

Shool said his attempts to bring the culprits to book has got him into trouble with Chaudhary and Rajwani who have engineered the strike.

The Front (AITUC affiliated) still has the Shramik Sena (Shiv Sena affiliated) and the Akhil Bharatiya Safai Majdoor Sangh (Cong affiliated) to contend with. Asked about support from both these unions, Shinde said, "Of course they have to. After all, the issues we are raising are pertinent to all civic employees." Which is fine, except for the fact that neither the Sena Corporator and leader of the Shramik Sena Prakash Mahadik nor leader of the Sangh Charan Singh Tak agrees. While Tak seems to think that this is essentially a show of strength between the AITUC and the Sena, the Sangh would like to "wait and watch".

The Sena feels that the Front’s loss in the recently held elections to the UMC Workers Credit Society is making it "desperate to prove that it still has the clout." The Sena grabbed nine of the 11 seats, which was known to be a Front stronghold. Mahadik adds, "A strike will not help at this juncture," and suggests, "Had we been handling it, by now we would have had Saheb (the Sena chief) resolving the issue in a flourish."