Trade unions to strike on Sept 2 for ‘unilateral’ labor changes
Rejecting the NDA government’s bid to “dangle the carrot” of another committee to look into their demands, a joint platform of about a dozen trade unions, including federations of defence, railways, banks and insurance employees, on Wednesday called for a country-wide general strike on September 2. “Committees will not feed out stomachs,” said Pawan Kumar, Zonal Secretary of RSS-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, on the sidelines of a national convention here. He was reacting to the Labour Ministry’s decision late Tuesday to constitute an inter-Ministerial committee to hold “threadbare” discussions with trade union representatives on their 10-point charter of demands and other issues, such as labour law amendments. The committee comprises Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Power Minister Piyush Goyal, and MoS in the Prime Minister’s Office, Jitendra Singh. “Why are they (Government) reacting after one year,” asked Kumar, adding that discussions had been held for a total of eight hours in two earlier meetings by “so-called” committees. “They said they will send a report to the Prime Minister. So, what is the guarantee that this committee will not go the same way,” he added.
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