Trade unions refuse to withdraw Sept 2 nationwide strike call

Central trade union leaders today refused to withdraw their nationwide strike call for September 2 to protest against proposed labour reforms, as their meeting with a group of ministers today, failed to make any headway.
The ministers' group, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will meet the union leaders tomorrow again to deliberate on the 12-points charter of demands put forth by the unions.
Speaking to reporters after a two-hour-long meeting with the union leaders, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said "there are 7-8 demands which are agreeable and the discussion on the labour is an ongoing process and the government is positive about the demands (of labour unions)."

The meeting will now "take place tomorrow as there is also a Cabinet meeting today", he added.
The union leaders, however, said the government is not offering any concrete assurance on their charter of demands and their call for September 2 strike stands.
"They have not offered any concrete assurance regarding our 12-points charter of demands. They are trying to mislead people by saying that in-principle they agree with our demands. There is no meaning of in-principle agreement," All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev said after the meeting.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) President A K Padmanabhan, who also attended the meeting, said, "The call for the strike stands as of now because there is no concrete assurance from the government in today's meeting."

"We agreed to come tomorrow for meeting because we don't want to leave the table otherwise they will blame us for not discussing the issues. There is no agreement on any issue so far," he added.