Government-union talks fail; Aug 5 bank strike on

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Thursday said it will go ahead with the nationwide bank strike on August 5 after failure of two rounds of conciliation talks with the Central Government.

The UFBU,an umbrella body of the unions of all hues in the banking industry,has given the strike call. It held two rounds of talks (on Monday and Thursday) with N K Prasad,Chief Labour Commissioner,Union Labour Ministry,in the presence of representatives of the Indian Banks Association (IBA) in Delhi,UFBU Convener C H Venkatachalam said.

The talks did not yield any result hence UFBU has decided to go ahead with the one-day strike called in support of various demands,Venkatachalam said.

A memorandum containing 21 demands was submitted to the IBA at the time of serving the strike notice,he said. About ten lakh employees of public,private and foreign banks will take part in the stir to protest,among other things,disinvestment in public lenders,mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing of routine activities in the banking industry,Venkatachalam said.