Will go on indefinite strike if our demands are not met soon, says sanitation workers
Essential activities in Mumbai like picking up solid waste from households and commercial establishments and keeping the city clean may suffer a major setback as nearly 31,000 municipal workers have announced to go on an indefinite strike starting July 23. The workers have called for the strike in order to oppose the civic body's Rs 4,000-crore project under which it aims to rope in private contractors to carry out cleaning and collection of waste through a fleet of new waste collection trucks across all the wards in Mumbai.
On Thursday, hundreds of sanitation workers gathered at Azad Maidan to protest the civic body's new waste collection policy, voicing concerns over job security and living conditions. The protest, organised by the Municipal Workers Action Committee, also saw BJP leader and cabinet minister Girish Mahajan extending support to the agitating workers. Following the gathering, a delegation of municipal workers along with Mahajan also met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
'We have held a discussion with the CM who assured us that all our demands will be met and we will have an agreement with municipal commissioner by July 23. If this doesn't happen, then we will go on an indefinite strike,' Ramakant Bane, general secretary of municipal union said. Bane said their demands included that no existing employee of the solid waste department should lose their job, there shall be no change in the service condition and no scheduled post should be dissolved or nullified in the wake of this tender.
Meanwhile, civic officials maintained that the tender of the Rs 4,000 crore project is still live and there has been no instruction from the administration to revoke it.
Thursday's protest also comes amid growing anger among workers against the civic body's plan to bring in private agencies for garbage collection. Workers fear the move will render thousands jobless, disrupting livelihoods of families that have served the city for generations.
'I have been working for over 20 years with the BMC. This job has been our family's sole source of income for generations,' said Prafulla Kamble, a sanitation worker. Kamble also highlighted another longstanding demand of the community—ownership rights to the municipal quarters they have lived in for over three generations. 'Our demand for ownership is repeatedly denied, and now we face the risk of losing our jobs too,' he said.
Several workers claimed the civic body has verbally assured that those displaced by the new plan would be accommodated in hospitals and other government offices, but claim that no formal guarantees have been provided.
Ashok Hatagale, who has worked for 27 years, expressed similar fears. 'We have always done the city's dirtiest and toughest jobs. Our living quarters are crumbling and no one listens to our requests for repairs. Now they want to take away our jobs too,' Hatagale said.
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