Central trade unions and All India Bank Employees Association, has called for a nationwide strike on March 28 (Monday) and 29 (Tuesday) against the Central government’s policies affecting workers, farmers, and people in general.
The decision of National strike comes after a meeting on March 22 where the trade unions said that they would protest against the Union Government’s “anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-people and anti-national policies”. The bank unions are participating to protest against the government’s plan to privatise public sector banks, as well as the Banking Laws Amendment Bill 2021.
Trade unions informed to roadways, transport workers and electricity workers to join the strike. The unions in the railways and defense sector would be making mass mobilization in support of the strike at several hundreds of spots, the statement added. Workers from various other sectors such as coal, steel, oil, telecom, postal, income tax, copper, and insurance are expected to participate in the strike.
Nationwide strike had its impact on the public transport sector in Tamil Nadu as a large number of buses operated by State Transport Undertakings (STU) remained off the road, affecting morning office-goers and others in many places.
As a result, autorickshaws were charging exorbitant fares, commuters in different cities complained. While many had the option of switching to suburban rail services and the Metro Rail here, same was not the case in other cities of the state and people had to rely on the available thin services of government buses and autorickshaws. The few running buses were packed beyond capacity. Trade unions took out a rally here pressing for their demands. Many autorickshaw drivers also joined the protest.
Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), said, “The two-days nationwide strike by the joint forum of central trade unions has begun this morning” and impact of the agitation, she answered that the entire coal belt (mining area) is affected in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress claims a good response in industrial areas of Assam, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Banking and insurance sectors are affected all over India, while steel and oil sectors are also seeing partial impact due to the strike.
10 central trade unions (CTUs) have joined hands to go on a 2 days nationwide strike from today with approx. 20 Cr workers.
The strike notices have been given by the unions in various sectors, such as coal, steel, oil, telecom, postal, income tax, copper, banks, and insurance, among others.
The unions in railways and defence sector are making mass mobilisation in support of the strike at several hundred spots, the joint forum had said earlier.
A joint forum of central trade unions had given a call for a nationwide strike on March 28 and 29 to protest against the government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people.
Their demands include the scrapping of the labour codes, no privatisation of any form, scrapping of the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), increased allocation of wages under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and regularisation of contract workers among others.
The central trade unions that are part of this joint forum are INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC. Union Government had issued an advisory to states and other agencies to be on high alert and ensure round the clock electricity supply and stability of the national grid.
