Unions to meet Govt on Jul 18;price rise, divestment on agenda

Government will meet the central trade unions on a 12-point charter of demands raised by them on July 18, which will also see unions raising issues of price rise, disinvestment and foreign direct investment (FDI).
"We have called a meeting of all the central trade unions on July 18 to discuss the charter of demands," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya told reporters here.
Leaders of central trade unions including RSS-affiliated Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, and TUCC will be attending the meeting.
The charter of demands includes government's steps to deal with price rise and unemployment, a universal social security cover for workers, stopping disinvestment of PSUs and opposition to FDI in railways and defence.

When asked about the meeting of the minister's group, he said: "We will meet in the middle of the Monsoon Session to discuss the charter of demands of the unions."
The ministers' group, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has been constituted to talk with the unions on their 12-point charter of demands.

"Here the thinking is that first I will sit with the unions and if the need be the Ministers' panel will meet the unions," the Minister said.
When asked about the meeting, BMS General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay told PTI: "Besides the charter of demands, we will also raise the issue of absence of labour component in the recently announced policy for the aviation and the textiles sectors."

BMS will also raise the issue of price rise, which is impacting the standard of living of the workers as well as the disinvestment in government PSUs, he added.
All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev said the unions have been asking the government to hold the meeting with the ministers' group, but it has not happened since the last meeting on August 27-27 last year.
"In the July 18 meeting we will tell them that the meeting of the minister's panel should be called. We will also raise other important issues of price rise, disinvestment and that of FDI," he added.