97 pc rly employees ready to go on strike over demands: Unions

All but three per cent of railway employees in the country are in favour of going on an indefinite strike to press for the fulfilment of a charter of demands which calls for, among other things, merger of DA with pay and improved grade pay, employee unions today claimed.
The unions of National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) today said that, "97.36 of railways employees voted in favour of an indefinite strike" in a poll conducted across 4,000 centres across the country on January 17 and 18.
Employees of the six production units also participated in the poll.
Earlier, All India Railwaymens' Federation (AIRF) had also conducted a poll which it claimed had returned the verdict that a majority of the employees supported a general strike for fulfilment of their demands.

In a statement today, NFIR said that the result of the "strike ballot" would be communicated to the Prime Minister and Railway Minister while mentioning that it still believes in a negotiated settlement to avert a strike.
Some of the demands in the 65-point charter are: guaranteed pension in lieu of the new pension scheme, implementation of Railway Ministry's proposals for improved Grade Pay for technicians, station masters, running staff, supervisors, etc.
It said that the agreement reached earlier on workers' issues should be honoured by the government. It further said that the demands had been conveyed to the Railway Minister at the General Managers' conference on January 21.