Work came to a halt in most public sector banks and insurance companies and road transport services crawled in large parts of India as millions of workers participated in the one-day general strike called today by all the eleven Central Trade Unions (CTUs).
The strike, first since independence to bring all the CTUs on a single platform, was to protest increased prices of food items, rising unemployment, frequent violation of labour laws and contractualisation of workforce in the government and private companies.
Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress described today’s strike as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘overwhelming’. Dasgupta warned the government of submitting to the trade unions’ demands. “I hope the government listens to us, otherwise, there will be another such strike.”
Banking and insurance sector companies were the worst affected as clerical staff in all major public sector banks and insurance companies abstained from work. According to C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employee Association, over 800,000 employees of public and private sector banks, Reserve Bank of India and regional co-operative banks, participated in the strike. Another 40,000 workers in the public sector insurance companies also participated in the strike.
“The strike in the banks was a total success,” Venkatachalam said. “Work in RBI and State Bank of India was seriously affected due to the strike. In most banks, cash transactions, cheque clearing, foreign exchange operations and government transactions could not be carried out due to the strike,” he added.
However, most banks remained open as a major officers’ union, All India Bank Employee Association (AIBEA), didn’t take part in the strike. It is believed that the AIBEA will go on a separate strike opposing banking sector reforms in March.
Road transport services in most states were also affected with unions of state government transport corporations supporting the strike. However, air traffic and rail services largely remained unaffected.
Tax collections were also partially hit as workers in the Income Tax department joined the strike. Though the unions claimed that a large number of Group C, Group D and gazetted officers went on strike, all offices of the I-T department were open.
Work was also affected at all the major ports and docks of the country with all five major workers’ unions of ports and dock workers participating in the strike. The operations at the Mumbai Port Trust and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) were affected. JNPT, which handles 60 per cent of the total container traffic in the country, saw a drop of 75 per cent in cargo handling. Work was also affected at the Vishakhapatnam port.
Partial work was affected at Coal India Limited (CIL) and its subsidiaries. “Out of the total 453 running mines, 413 mines were open while the remaining 40 were closed. Out of the closed mines, majority is from the Western Coalfields. In other subsidiaries, there was not too much of an impact,” said R Mohandas, director (personnel) of CIL.
However, Shyamal Chakravarty, state president of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) claimed that the bandh was a success. “Seven flights were cancelled and people did not turn up for work in support of the bandh, which was a complete success,” he claimed.
Normal life was affected in Kerala despite the state government’s enforcement of ‘dies non’ (no-work-no-play) order against the strike. Reports from the state said transport, banking and government’s business were disrupted in the state.
In West Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee made all possible efforts to maintain normal life largely ensuring adequate transport services. However, the efforts of the government failed as most transport services saw fewer passengers.
In Kolkata, most shops, markets and business establishments were closed. While, five people were reportedly injured at Barasat in North 24 Parganas in a political clash, there were also reports that the Trinamool Congress workers allegedly vandalised CPI(M)’s zonal committee office at Jadavpur. Some journalists were also injured, in the political clash at Jadavpur, in south Kolkata. However, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee denied any such incident.
“All these were planned and staged,” Banerjee said. She ‘congratulated’ common people of the state for making the general strike ‘unsuccessful’. “This is the beginning of the end of the bandh regime,” she said. Banerjee claimed there was “98 to 100 per cent attendance in all government offices in the state”.
With inputs from Kolkata and Hyderabad bureau
