By IANS,
New Delhi : Government functioning will likely slow down Wednesday with employees of all state-owned banks as well as Left-backed trade unions calling nationwide strikes over separate issues.
Airport workers also announced Tuesday they would join Wednesday’s strike, called by the trade unions to protest against the “anti-worker and “anti-people” policies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) said in a joint statement that the bank employees would strike work in protest against mergers of nationalised banks, among other issues.
“Since the government has been insensitive to our long pending demand, we are constrained to go for a strike,” AIBOA (Delhi state) general secretary Satyendra Singh Shishodia said.
About 80,000 employees of the State Bank of India (SBI) and its seven associate banks went on strike Monday in protest against the government’s decision to merge the State of Saurashtra with the SBI.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) leader M.K. Pandhe and All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) leader Gurudas Dasgupta Monday said the government was desperate to hasten some of its “cherished” anti-people and anti-national programmes.
Calling the policies of the UPA government “anti-worker” and “anti-people”, the two Left leaders accused it of ganging up with the employers’ lobby against the workers.
They also said the central government was taking decisions through a “dubious” majority in the tripartite Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to hand over the huge corpus of the fund to private mutual fund companies.
The unions supporting the general strike are: the All-India Trade Union Congress, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, Labour Progressive Force (LPF), All-India Central Council of Trade Union, Trade Union Coordination Centre, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, and All-India United Trade Union Centre.