The Southern Railway Mazdoor Union (SRMU) has declared a three-day hunger protest from May 8 to against re-employing retired personnel, said K Kannaiah, general secretary of SRMU, on Thursday.“Under the guise of reforms the Union government has been creating an extra-ordinary situation in which rampant privatisation of departments is depriving lakhs of permanent posts in railways – by hiring contract labourers, re-employment of retired persons – without any bother for the safety of passengers,” he said.“The maintenance activities pertaining to passenger, freight and EMU services are handled by mechanical and electrical maintenance staff.

But the government is more interested in handing over the duty to contractors,” he alleged.“Though there were nearly 2.5 lakh vacancies unfilled in railways for the last several years, the central government continues to ignore the legitimate demands of railway men,” he added.“We have decided to conduct a 72 hour relay hunger strike from 6am on May 8 to 6am on May 11.

In Southern Railway, thousands of SRMU railway men and women would conduct the hunger strike in front of the general manager’s office, divisional railway manager’s office, workshop manager’s office and at important junctions,” he added