ING union firm on strike tomorrow as banks hold merger EGMs

Employees affiliated with a trade union of ING Vysya Bank will strike work tomorrow, the day when the lender will hold a meeting of its shareholders to get nod for the proposed merger with Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB).
Despite employee unions of different banks deferring their one-day all-India strike proposed for January 7, ING Vysya Bank's union said it will go ahead with the stir as its concerns over the proposed merger remain unresolved.
"We are going ahead with the strike even though the strike at the all-India level (at PSU banks) has been deferred," All India ING Vysya Bank Employees Union General Secretary KJ Ramkrishna Reddy told PTI over phone today.

He said their concerns on the proposed merger with Kotak Mahindra Bank remain unresolved and demanded job security for the employees.
Shareholders of ING Vysya and Kotak Mahindra Bank will have extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) in Bengaluru and Mumbai respectively to approve the Rs 15,000-crore merger plan.
Reddy said the union will stage protest at Bangalore Town Hall at 1030 hrs and the employees, who are also shareholders of the company, will then participate in the EGM scheduled at 1600 hrs.

ING Vysya's employees had given the strike call ahead of other banks who decided to stop work on January 7 for a wider set of demands centred around wage revision.

To ensure that interests of all stakeholders are 'protected', SA Sridhar of ING Vysya Bank Officers' Association had earlier called for a "tripartite agreement" between Kotak Mahindra Bank, ING Vysya Bank and employees.
All-India ING Vysya Bank Employees Union and All-India ING Vysya Bank Officers Association, which together represent 35 per cent of the lender's over 10,000 employees, had earlier said they were not opposing the merger but want their interests to be protected.
In the biggest banking merger, KMB had announced an all-stock deal to acquire ING Vysya Bank late last month.