Teachers’, principals’ strike to be called off today, a 5-day strike from Oct.5: unions

The two-day token strike launched by the Ceylon Teachers' and Principals’ Services Union decide to temporarily call off their strike today, the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) General Secretary Joseph Stalin said.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror he said they did not get any discussions with a responsible person to resolve their issues.

Therefore, the union had decided to call off the two-day strike from today and to start another five-day strike from October 5.

"Yesterday we held a protest march from Colombo Fort Railway Station to the Presidential Secretariate to meet the President's Secretary. But our attempt failed and a discussion was given with one additional secretary. There was no point of discussing with an additional secretary," he said.

"The token strike that we held yesterday was 98 per cent successful and thousands of teachers and principals gathered at the Fort Railways Station to protest".

"So, we decided to continue our strike for the second day as scheduled", Mr. Stalin said.

“The government so far has not taken any decision over salary anomalies since 1997," he said. “The teacher and principal service in our country get the lowest salaries compared to other countries. Therefore, we demand the government to consider our demands and provide a solution as soon as possible,” he added. (Chaturanga Samawickrama)