Overview
- The joint action committee of 12 unions began an indefinite strike after midnight on Friday, and officials reported only 32–48 of roughly 2,766 BEST buses on the road on day one, leaving lakhs of commuters without scheduled services.
- Authorities sought to stop the outage with an industrial court’s ad‑interim restraining order and by invoking the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA), but the walkout continued and some buses were obstructed, pelted with stones, or forced to return to depots.
- Maharashtra’s transport minister held talks with union leaders and directed officials to prepare reports and escalate the budget/merger demand to a chief‑minister‑level meeting within 8–10 days, while unions say they will not withdraw the strike without written guarantees.
- Workers are pressing for merger of BEST’s budget with the BMC, implementation of Seventh Pay Commission benefits for 2016–2026, settlement of retirees’ dues, an end to contractual hiring and regularisation of wet‑lease bus staff, and protection of BEST assets from long‑term leasing or privatisation.
- BEST runs Mumbai’s second‑largest public transport system and supplies power to parts of the island city; the stoppage has overloaded trains, metro and taxis but electricity has remained largely unaffected so far, and some unions have publicly distanced themselves from the shutdown.