The Day India was a Union of Strikes

A claimed 16 cr members of 10 central trade unions shut down parts of the country to protest changes in labour laws and privatisation of PSUs.

Written by: Ruhi Tewari

2 min readSep 3, 2015 06:03 AM IST First published on: Sep 3, 2015 at 12:17 AM IST

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Striking workers in Gurgaon on Wednesday. (Express Photo by: Manoj Kumar)

Indian National Trade Union Congress (Affiliated to Congress)

Membership: 3.3 crore

Members in Coal, Steel, Transport, Insurance, Banking, Engineering sectors; also in Agriculture

‘The strike was a great success. We are not against labour reforms, but they should be balanced to benefit both workers and industry… Strength of permanent members is being reduced; contract workers increased.’ — G Sanjeeva Reddy President, INTUC

All India Trade Union Congress (Affiliated to CPI)

Membership: 1.5 crore

Members in Coal, Road Transport, Steel, Electricity Boards, Engineering participated; also in unorganised sectors like beedi, construction, local bodies, handlooms; headload, anganwadi workers

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‘We had not expected such a great response. This was our 16th strike since 1991, and was the most successful. No sector except Railways was left out. — D L Sachdeva National Secretary, AITUC