Passengers faced hardships due to the strike, which was earlier scheduled to begin on Monday.
M Chandran, president of the State Transport Union affiliated to the CITU said, "We decided to start the strike on Sunday itself, instead of Monday. Only those buses that were used for the early morning shift are plying. "
More than one lakh employees of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) and State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) took part in the strike. Most buses remained off the road in Chennai as around 20,000 of the 24, 000 employees, including drivers, conductors and technical staff, took part in the strike. There were incidents of buses being damaged by striking employees.
The unions said the state government failed to take care of the employees' welfare. Employees who retired from service were yet to get their pension and retirement benefits from 2012, they said.
The TNSTC employees in Madurai division closed the gates of the depots and staged demonstrations. Trade unions alleged that many MLAs threatened the transport staff saying they would ensure bus operations by engaging private persons. "Many MLAs visited the depots in their respective places and threatened the workers," said INTUC general secretary B Jeevanmoorthy.
