The country is on the verge of a grinding halt . As many central and local trade unions with affiliations with worker associations in banks, government offices, telecom, factories and other sectors have called for a country-wide strike.
Central Trade Unions claim that over 15 crore workers are likely to participate in the strike.Even as the Centre asked all ministries to ensure that public utilities and essential services are not affected due to the nation-wide strike on Friday, the actual scenario would be clear only in the morning.
The unions have given a call for the strike to protest against the “anti-people, anti-national and anti-worker” policies of the NDA government at the Centre. They believe that the government is indifferent to the workers’ demands and effecting anti-worker changes in labour laws.
Office goers in Mumbai will have a major sense of relief though because the Indian Railways has refused to participate in the strike. The government has already constituted a committee to look into the Railways’ demand of raising monthly minimum wage from Rs 18,000 to about Rs 26,000 under the seventh pay commission. No auto or cab strikes have been announced in Mumbai.
After an emergency meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Power Minister Piyush Goyal, an appeal was made to the unions to call off their strike. Jaitley also vouched that the government will release state employees’ bonuses for the last two years, and increase minimum wages for unskilled labourers to persuade the Unions to cancel the strike.
The banking sector has joined the protest. “Bank unions are opposing anti-people banking reforms, privatisation of banks, closure of associate banks and merger with SBI,” All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) General Secretary Harvinder Singh said.
