Talk and avert blackouts

The government and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) strikers are playing a game of chicken, and the prospects of blackouts loom large, with the warring trade unions intensifying their industrial action.

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The protesting workers have launched a_sick-note campaign. Unless the government abandons its plan to restructure the CEB at the expense of its workers, they will be left with no alternative but to launch a continuous strike, the protesting trade unions have warned. The JVP trade union arm, which used to lead the CEB workers’ strikes from the front during previous governments has dissociated itself from the ongoing trade union action.

The state sector is rotten to the core, and most public institutions are badly in need of reforms, the CEB being one of them. The CEB workers have abused their institution’s monopolistic hold on power generation and distribution to obtain massive pay hikes and indulge in corrupt practices which have caused generation costs to soar. The CEB trade unions have said their members will carry out a house-to-house campaign to educate the public on the ill-effects of the CEB reforms on the cards. But it is doubtful whether they will be able to win over the electricity consumers, who are not well-disposed towards the CEB and its workers.