By IANS,
Kolkata : Around 7,500 employees of the United Bank of India (UBI) Tuesday struck work to protest the initial public offer (IPO) of the bank.
The public sector bank is divesting 15.8 percent of its stake.
“Till now the strike is very successful. Around 1,100-1,200 branches of the bank across the country were completely shut down,” UBI Employees Union (UBIEU) general secretary Sukhomoy Sarkar told IANS.
UBI has 1,507 branches across the country.
He said the strike was completely successful in West Bengal, Orissa, Tripura, Manipur, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu and partially successful in Assam, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Two unions of the bank participated in the strike. One is UBIEU, which is affiliated to the Bank Employees Federation of India, and the other is United Bank Employees Association (UBIEA), which is affiliated to the All India Bank Employees Association.
The price band of the issue of the city-based bank is fixed at Rs.60-66 a share and the issue closes on Feb 25, 2010.
UBI is offering 50 million equity shares of Rs.10 each.
Sarkar said attendance in the head office of the bank was very low.
“Of the total 900 employees (including all grades) working in the headquarter, only 30-35 were present today (Tuesday),” he said.