Min wages a ‘cruel joke’, Sept 2 strike is on: CITU

The only relief or face-saver for the Centre is that, the Sangh-affiliated BMS is staying away from the shutdown on the ground that many of its demands have been met.

Amarjit Kaur wondered at a government that was negotiating with just one trade union that was not part of the strike, and ignoring all the others who had given the call for an All India strike.

Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya during an interaction with trade union leaders on August 30 appealed to them to call off their agitation. Some workers at Coal India are due to join the strike but company officials said they did not expect any shortfall in supplies for power companies as there was an oversupply of the fuel.

The trade unions however are resolute this time.

On the unions’ opposition to government plans to merge associate banks of SBI with the parent bank, Jaitley said, “The merger is not subject of trade unions”.

“The unions will meet tomorrow (Wednesday) and take a call”.

AITUC Secretary Amarjeet Kaur said, “There will be “chakka jam” in 11 states like Andhra Pradesh, Telengana Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka”.

While several trade unions have been getting ready for a nation-wide general strike on September 2, the largest recognised trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) is preparing for victory marches hailing the government’s notification on Bonus payment as a historical victory for Indian workers. Gathering against what they call the “anti-worker and anti-people” policies of the state, the demands of those participating have been put forward in a 12-point charter.

The government will fork out an additional Rs 3,800 crore in paying the bonus that will benefit 33 lakh-odd central employees ahead of the festive season.

He further stated that releasing previous years’ bonus for the central govt employees is not something about Government’s magnanimity.

“All workers, irrespective of their trade union affiliation, would participate in the strike because it concerns their livelihood”, he said. We will be updating live about the impact of Bharat Bandh across the country.

Trade union CITU said on Tuesday that the hike in minimum wages for non-agricultural workers from Rs. 112 a day to Rs. 350 is a “mockery” of workers.

CTUs expressed dismay over “utterly negative” attitude of the government on basic demands of workers on minimum wages as per consensus formulation of Indian Labour Conference, on universal social security including pension for all workers including those in unorganised sector, among others.