Trade unions protest price rise

A united platform of trade unions on Wednesday staged a march to Parliament on the issues of price rise and the government’s policy on disinvestment. The show of unity — where Congress-backed INTUC joined hands with Left unions — was somewhat dented by the absence of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), which was part of the original platform formed in September 2009.

The unions nevertheless claiming a crowd of about 300,000 workers made their point to the government by avoiding it — they chose to give their memorandum to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar rather than to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or any other representative of the government. The joint protest by the platform of unions formed two years ago maintained that they were reciprocating the indifference the government of India has shown to their demands for the last two years.

“We decided to not give our memorandum to the government or address our grievances to the Prime Minister for they have ignored our demands for the last two yeas,” said Gurudas Dasgupta, a CPI MP and general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC).

BMS, which plans to carry out a separate march later, has stayed out of the joint protests for the past one year in what is regarded as a clash of egos. The unions which joined on Wednesday were Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) affiliated to the ruling Congress, AITUC, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, All India United Trade Union Centre, Trade Union Coordination Centre, United Trade Union Congress and All India Central Council of Trade Unions.

Both AITUC general secerary Gurdas Dasgupta as well as INTUC president and Congress MP Sanjeeva Reddy appealed to BMS to join them in their agitation.