Sri Lanka oil union calls protest ahead of polls

COLOMBO, - Workers at Sri Lanka's state-owned oil company on Wednesday called a four-day protest, in what is likely to be the first of many pre-election tussles between opposition-allied unions and the government.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, since coming to power in late 2005, has mostly avoided conflict with Sri Lanka's labour and student unions, after asking them in 2006 to hold off on strikes until the military defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers.

But since the government crushed the rebels and ended a 25-year war in May, many expect unions to pressure Rajapaksa for delayed wage increases with the cost of living rising and presidential and parliamentary polls due by April.

The union at the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said it would stage a four-day "work-to-rule" protest from Thursday to demand wage rises that were due in January.

"While the government has been promising us our salary hikes, it has also been trying to sabotage our union actions," union spokesman D.J. Rajakaruna said. He also said the government had reneged on a promise to honour the wage increases on Sept. 30.

He said the union's office -- in a military-guarded high-security zone -- was attacked by vandals on Tuesday night. A police spokesman said he had no information.

A work-to-rule action means union employees do no work outside their assigned duties or working hours.

In reality, it means a delay or problem in one area could shut down the entire petroleum supply chain, leave the island's pumps dry and cripple normal economic activity. Already, people in Colombo were seen stockpiling petrol.

"They can't open doors and then create lot of unrest in the country. They will have to wait until January," Petroleum Minister A.H.M Fowzie told Reuters.

The government last January said the cost of the war had kept it from giving the wage hike as agreed.

Rajapaksa's government is under pressure to boost revenue and cut this year's budget deficit to 7 percent from an estimated current level of around 9 percent, under the terms of a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan. [ID:nSP539379]

It also faces an election, which is when Sri Lanka's incumbent governments usually roll out populist measures that weigh heavily on state coffers.

Sri Lanka has a long history of protests and strikes by trade and student unions before elections and this year the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is expected to use its widespread union influence to counter Rajapaksa's post-war popularity.

Many suspected a union hand in an island-wide power blackout two weeks ago, although both the government and the electrical workers' union said that was not the case. [ID:nCOL500139] ($1=114.80 Sri Lankan Rupee) (Writing by Bryson Hull;