Unions call 2-day nationwide strike in Jan to protest anti-labour policies

RSS-affiliated BMS will not participate in the strike

Ten central trade unions on Friday declared a two-day nationwide strike on January 8 and 9 to protest against job losses caused by the government’s policies that lead to economic downturn and labour law violations.

The call for strike was given by the unions at the National Convention of Workers held in New Delhi on Friday. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) was not a part of the convention and will not take part in the strike.

“Most of the issues raised by unions from time-to-time are related to enforcement of existing labour laws. Trade unions should focus on pressurising enforcement agencies, which in most cases is under the state government as labour is a concurrent subject, instead of diverting and politicising the issue,” BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said. He added that BMS will not compete with other unions by calling its own strike and said it has been protesting against the government’s policies on various forums.

This is the third time in the tenure of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government that the unions will go on a nationwide strike. In 2015 and 2016, both in September, the ten unions had gone on a one-day nationwide strike on similar issues. In both the occasions, the BMS did not participate.

The worker unions registered their protest against price rise, disinvestment of public sector units, job losses caused by demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax (GST), economic downturn and labour law violations, among others. The unions opposed the government’s move to introduce fixed-term employment for all industries and demanded scrapping of contract worker system for work perennial in nature.

The unions will hold state-level, district-level and industry-level joint conventions in October and November. It will be followed up by submission of strike notice and demonstrations between 17 and 22 December.

“The central government not only refused to respond to the just and genuine demands of the organised agitation of the worker class, but has been increasing its aggression against the rights of workers, employees and trade unions,” the four-page declaration signed by 10 unions said. These unions include Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) and Left-affiliated unions such as All India Trade Union Congress (Aituc), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu), All India United Trade Union Centre, among others.

Bank employees’ union, under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), will also join the strike on January 8 and 9, All India Bank Employees’ Association General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said. Defence sector workers have called for a separate strike from 23-25 January on privatisation of defence sector and the National Pension System under implementation since 2006.

The National Convention also condemned the government’s move to deprive Intuc from all representations in the tripartite and bipartite forums and committee meetings. The Central government had barred Intuc from attending such meetings after two factions within the union had claimed to be leading it.

The unions termed the introduction of fixed-term employment, a form of contract system with a fixed-term tenure for workers, as a “modern labour slavery system” introduced “backdoor” through a notification.

“The estimates by independent surveys and those sponsored by employers’ organisations revealed loss of 70 lakh (7 million) jobs with closure of 234,000 small factory units in the first few months of demonetisation (of old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in November 2016),” the declaration said, adding 60 million people lost their jobs in the informal sector.

The unions also registered their protest against the merger of three public sector banks (PSBs) – Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank – and said the government should fix the problems of non-performing assets and corporate defaults instead of going ahead with this move.