Active participation of workers in strike indication of extent of anger against govt policies:CITU

The expanse and active participation of workers in the two-day strike which began Tuesday is a clear indication of the extent of their anger and resentment against the policies of the government, the CITU said.

It said that around 20 crore workers from all sectors of the economy have participated in the strike across the country. The strike would continue on January 9.

"The unprecedented expanse and active participation of the workers in the two-day strike is a clear indication of the extent of anger and resentment of the workers against the neo-liberal policies and the attacks on their working and living conditions perpetrated by the government's policies," said the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) in a statement.

It alleged that the strike was the result of the discontent over the BJP-led Narendra Modi government's policies which were for the benefit of big corporates and business houses, both foreign and domestic, "with least concern for the plight of the toiling people".

The strike, which was supported by sectors like telecom, health, education, coal, steel, electricity, banking, insurance and transport, affected train movement as well as normal life across states like West Bengal, Kerala, several districts of Karnataka, North-Eastern states and Odisha, the CITU said.

The 10 CITUs which have gone on strike include INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC. The RSS affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) will not participate.

"Road transport was seriously affected in most of the states, including Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand. Though the railway employees did not join the strike, in several places they extended support. The railway contract workers and goods shed workers, safai karmacharis joined the strike in several states," the CITU claimed.

It alleged that in West Bengal, despite the "terror" by the Trinamool Congress workers, road transport, both passenger and goods, remained severely affected and several industries, including jute and engineering industries, remained closed.

"In Tripura, all the pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government and its party goons could not force open more than 30 per cent of shops and only 30 per cent of buses ran. In the tribal areas of Tripura there was a total bandh," the statement said.

It also claimed that the workers of the central government schemes, including anganwadi employees, ASHA, midday meal workers, and others joined the strike en masse across the country and participated in demonstrations.

"The strike was a total in insurance and BSNL and near total except in a few banks in the banking sectors. The central government employees participated in a massive manner in the strike," the CITU claimed.

The CITU demanded the government to immediately put on hold all the anti-worker amendments to the labour laws and take immediate concrete action on all the demands raised by the joint trade union movement.