The Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC) has called for a collective of workers unions to take trade union action on Thursday (28) in the lead-up to an island-wide hartal campaign on 6 May, The Sunday Morning learns.
According to the TUCC, over 200 trade unions from the State, private, and the plantation sector will be expected to join the action on Thursday.
The trade unions are calling for the “Corrupt Government to go home” among other demands and will converge in front of the Fort Railway Station to hold a large rally on Thursday (28) evening, TUCC Co-Convener Udeni Dissanayake told The Sunday Morning.
According to Dissanayake, corresponding protest campaigns will be held in major cities outside Colombo on Thursday as a show of solidarity with the main TU action in Colombo.
“It is the duty of every working man and woman to join this struggle to send this corrupt Government home and to hold the wrongdoers accountable,” he said.
Health, power, petroleum, education, and other unions that join the one-day action will not disrupt essential services or treatment of patients, the TUCC said.
The protest on Thursday will likely see teacher trade unions also join the movement. The Ceylon Teacher Union has planned a token strike tomorrow (25).
The TUCC last week staged a protest at Lipton Circus and marched to join protestors encamped at the GotaGoGama at Galle Face. However, Dissanayake said the trade unions would not march to join the protestors at Galle Face on Thursday.
Asiri Fernando
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