Bank strike today

MUMBAI, July 3: The banking industry will come to a standstill on Friday as over ten lakh bank employees will go on a nationwide strike to press for better service conditions. The strike call has been given by the apex level unions of bank employees and officers under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions UFBU.

The strike originally slated for April 4, 1997 was deferred to July 4 due to the uncertain political situation prevailed then due to the Congress withdrawal of support to the Deva Gowda government. The strike will affect various economic activities over the country.

The UFBU pointed out six major demands. S Nagaraj, General Secretary, Maharashtra State Committee of All India Bank Officers Association said in a statement here that the government move to set up Local Area Banks LAB has provoked all the unions as they fear that 196 Regional Rural Banks RRBs with 14,000 branches and nationalised banks with a network of 45,000 rural and semi-urban branches which did commendable job in rural development will be severely affected by the LAB.