 "Apologise for affecting normal lives; govt should take lessons: Trade unions")
As essential services such as road transport and banking were hit due to a nationwide workers strike, trade unions termed it as a “miracle” and said government should take lessons.
The trade unions claimed 150 million workers participated in the strike making it the biggest ever workers’ protest till date. This means there was no impact of the Sangh Parivar-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) backing out at the last moment. In fact, the trade unions claimed some of the BMS workers, particularly those in the telecom sector, were also part of the strike.
“Response has been as never before. It is the biggest strike ever in the country. It has been supported by thousands of local unions, unaffiliated associations and federations. It is the largest unity of the trade unions that has done miracle. All sectors of the economy are affected,” said a press release jointly issued by the 10 participating central trade unions.
Despite several round of consultation with the government, trade unions urged the labour ministry to restart dialogue with the trade unions for “concrete solution.”
“We expect (the) government to take lesson and take steps to ameliorate the grievances of the working masses. It must restart discussions with central trade unions for concrete solution to the demands failing which the struggle will be intensified,” the statement further read.
In another press statement, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) claimed many states including West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh saw a “virtual bandh” as road transport came to a grinding halt. “The manufacturing activities in several industrial clusters across the country totally stopped due to the strike,” Citu General Secretary Tapan Sen said.
Major impact was seen in the road transport sector as commuters were seen stranded on roads in various states. “In almost all the states workers of State Road Undertakings went on strike…Magnificent strike of transport workers affected the normal life of the people for which CTUs (central trade unions)are sorry” the unions said.
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Other sectors which were impacted, the trade unions said, were oil, coal, power, bank, insurance, port, defence, postal and telecom. In the banking sector, more than two million workers participated and nearly one million joined the strike in the defence sector, the unions said.
“Nearly complete strike in BSNL throughout the country. Even BMS workers joined strike in BSNL,” the press release read.
The trade unions said many establishments participated in the strike after decades. “It was heartening to note that some of the establishments and industries have gone on strike after almost decades like in Bhillai, Iron Ore Mines, BHEL and some steel plants,” they said.
The trade unions have called the strike mainly to oppose the labour law proposals of the government and non-fulfillment of their demands particularly those related to minimum wages, contract workers and bonus.
Citu urged the government “to scrap the anti worker amendments to the labour laws and take immediate concrete action on all the demands raised by the joint trade union movement.”
Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who leaves for Turkey to attend a G-20 labour summit today, had said on Tuesday that there won’t be much impact of the strike. However, he had slammed the trade unions and urged them to “change their attitude”.