The employees were treated abominably: one owner allegedly tied a bus conductor to a tree and spanked the poor man for failing to bring in the targeted collection for the day.
[citation needed] Trade union work was an uphill task and members of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) had to proceed in secret, disguising themselves to avoid company thugs.
However, the strike was a success, and the bus owners, who were the most stubbornly anti-union section of the capitalists in Sri Lanka had made important concessions.
Immediately after the nationalisation of the bus companies in 1958, the Motor Workers’ Union successfully concluded negotiations with the Ceylon Transport Board on many demands, amongst which was the payment of Government rates of cost of living allowances to the employees.
As a result, the union suffered heavy victimisation – which was later rectified by the law courts as well as by government intervention after the United Front election victory in 1970.
Batty Weerakoon, The Ceylon Federation of Labour & the Trade Union Movement in Sri Lanka (1932-1975), (abridged version) accessed on 4 November 2005.
Leslie Goonewardena, Short History of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party Archived 2006-10-31 at the Wayback Machine accessed 4 November 2005.