Labour policy: Trade unions reject govt appeal, to go on strike today

The strike has been called by central trade unions such as Congress’s INTUC, and Left’s CITU and AITUC.

AITUC said that various sections of the formal and informal economy are prepared to make the bandh a “grand protest of the working class” against anti-labour policies of the Centre. There will be processions in almost all the industrial clusters of Delhi such as Okhla, Kirti Nagar, Mayapuri, Wazirpur, Jhilmil-Shahdara, Patparganj and Mangolpuri from the morning. “At Jantar Mantar there will be a gathering of workers and employees from banks, insurance, universities, postal, telecom, defence and oil sectors to take part in a procession to Parliament,” AITUC said in a statement.

Chakka jam has been planned in 11 states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

CITU rejected Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya’s claim that the NDA government was committed to fair earning and social security for workers. It alleged a deliberate “misinformation campaign” to create confusion and “sabotage” the strike. It also attacked BMS for accepting the government’s “meagre” hike in minimum wages and refusing to be part of the strike. Last year also, the RSS-affiliated union opted out of a strike at the last moment.

The minimum wage announced by the government is not even half of what all central trade unions, including BMS, had demanded, CITU said. “How could a trade union worth its name accept such a mockery on their genuine demand formulated on the basis of a formula accepted by the central government also? BMS may consider this mockery of an offer a ‘historic achievement’ owing to their compulsion, but others cannot,” it said.

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