Unions call nationwide strike on September 2

Central trade unions today said they will go on one-day nationwide strike on September 2 to protest against unilateral amendments in labour laws and the governments' indifference towards their 12-points charter of demands.
At the National Convention, they gave the call for all India general strike on September 2, 2016 under their joint declaration.
Leaders of the central trade unions including INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, UTUC and LPF participated in the convention and signed the joint declaration.
However, RSS backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh did not turn up for the convention and is not part of the declaration.

The unions have asked their members to organise a day- long mass Dharna/Satyagraha in state capitals and industrial centres on August 9 (Quit India Day) ahead of the Strike.
They have also decided to organise joint conventions and campaigns in June-July in states, districts and at industry level and take initiative to involve peasants, agriculture labour and mass of the people in the campaign.

According to declaration, totally ignoring the united opposition of the workers, the government has been moving fast to demolish existing labour laws thereby empowering the employers with unfettered rights to "hire and fire" and stripping the workers and trade unions of all their rights and protection provided in laws.

"As follow up to the PMO's written communication to the Chief Secretaries of States, states are bing directed to carry out Rajasthan type pro-management amendments in labour laws. The Labour Secretary has issued executive order on January 12, 2016 granting exemption to so called start-up Enterprises from inspection and application of 9 major labour laws, thereby legitimizing violations," it said.
Unions also expressed their reservations against proposed Small Factories Bill which provides that major 14 labour laws will not apply to factories employing up to 40 workers.
Similarly, they opposed that Labour Code on Wages Bill and Labour Code on Industrial Relations Bill saying that "under the cover of amalgamation, these bills seek to make registration of unions almost impossible, making retrenchment and closure almost free for the employers class."

The unions also said that all rights-components in all
labour laws are being demolished to impose "conditions of slavery" on the working people.
Simultaneously, almost in all the states, the work-place level struggles of the workers are being "sought to be crushed through repression including intimidation and arrests by the government machinery as is being nakedly visible in Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat etc in recent times", they added.
"Attack on public sector has been pushed to unprecedented height. Not merely disinvestment, the government will now go for 'mega strategic sale'. The main target is the Maharatna CPSUs and those amongst the top profit making CPSUs including banks/insurance," they said.

They said that the anti-worker and authoritarian attitude of the government is also reflected in their refusal to implement the consensus recommendations of 43rd, 44th and 45th Indian Labour Conferences on formulation of minimum wages, same wage and benefits as regular workers for the contract workers and granting status of workers with attendant benefits to the scheme workers like anganwadi, mid-day-meal, ASHA, para-teachers etc.
The convention demanded strict implementation of labour laws and scrapping of "labour law-reforms", halting mass scale contractorisation, minimum wages at not less than Rs 18,000 per month with indexation and universal social security benefits and pension for all.

The demands also included compulsory registration of Trade Unions within 45 days and ratification of ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
They said the government has not taken any meaningful step to curb price rise of essential necessities and to generate employment except making tall baseless claims "through sound-bites in the media".
They said that the huge dose of additional duty on diesel, doubling of cess on coal, and increase in indirect taxes in the latest Budget (2016-17) and the recent increase in prices of all petro products are bound to fuel further spiralling rise in prices of daily necessities.
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On the unions' opposition to government plans to merge associate banks of SBI with the parent bank, Jaitley said, "The merger is not subject of trade unions. Their service conditions are not being hurt adversely or affected at all.
"There will be no impact of merger on service conditions of any employee. If government decides that we need strong banks, then unions would have to change their approach to the whole issue".
Asked about not calling trade unions other than BMS by inter-ministerial group on labour issues, Dattatrey said later that he held a meeting with all trade unions on July 18, 2016.

All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev said the unions had asked for another round of discussions with the ministerial group, but they held two such rounds with BMS only earlier this month.
The ministerial panel had met trade unions to discuss their charter of demands on August 26-27, 2015. After that, the panel had only called BMS for two rounds of discussions earlier this month.
The joint declaration issued by the 10 central trade unions issued on August 18, 2016 stated: "It is unfortunate that during the past one year, the group of ministers appointed for discussion with CTUOs (unions) on 12-point charter has not convened a single meeting, but has been only talking to BMS which has not joined the strike call."

It added: "The CTOUs condemn the move of the central government to divide the workers in the face of ongoing strike campaign and create confusion through making misleading statements..."
The 10 central trade unions have given a call for one-day pan-India strike on September 2, 2016, to protest against the government's labour reforms and not paying heed to their demands.