New Delhi: Rebuffing requests by the central
government, the country’s largest trade unions said they will launch a
nationwide strike from Thursday demanding more jobs, better wages and
pensions.
Central trade unions and their affiliates, representing millions of
workers, will go on a three-day agitation outside Parliament and will
continue their nationwide relay protest for the next four months to
“highlight government inaction to create more jobs and protect the
interest of the working class”.
The move not only opens a new political front against the Bharatiya
Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, but also
puts the spotlight on the politically contentious issue of jobs, which
has become the central issue voiced by the opposition in the campaign
for the assemblies of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
A slowing economy and disruptions caused—particularly to the informal
economy—by the back-to-back measures of demonetisation and the rollout
of the goods and services tax (GST) has only emboldened the opposition.
“This move has two key focus areas—the short-term industrial-relations
equation with the government and the long-term political opposition.
While unions in the short term want the NDA to restart negotiations on
reforms with them, the relay strike in an election season will highlight
opposition unity and underline joblessness in the country,” said K.R.
Shyam Sundar, a labour economist and professor at XLRI Jamshedpur.
On Wednesday, a group of 10 central trade unions told reporters that
their “anti-government” offensive will start with a three-day national
“dharna” in Delhi on Thursday to highlight the plight of the
470-million-strong working community in India.
“The anti-people and anti-worker policies of the government at the
centre are inflicting horrific miseries and hardships on the crores of
common people from every walk of life. Unemployment is getting
aggravated with every passing day,” the joint platform of trade unions
said in a statement.
The Joint Trade Union Platform represents workers and employees from all major sectors of industries.
“Till mid-February, you will see hundreds of protest marches, rallies,
tool-down strikes across sectors, across states and across cities,” said
Amarjeet Kaur, national secretary of the All India Trade Union
Congress. Their interaction with the labour ministry failed on Tuesday
night as labour minister Santosh Gangwar “could not give any specific
assurance” on their demands, said Kaur.
The group of ministers headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley, created
to ease friction between workers and the government, had not met the
trade unions for the last two years, she said.
“Where are jobs?” asked Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre of
Indian Trade Unions. “The organized opposition by workers of different
sectors over a sustained period of time will now force the government to
take note of their plight,” he said.
Though the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor
Sangh (BMS) voices the same concern—the lack of job creation—it will not
join the other unions. Instead, it has called for a strike on 17
November.
Last Friday, all central unions except BMS boycotted a meeting with the
labour ministry after the latter failed to invite the
Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC). They
forced the ministry to relent and invite INTUC to the talks on Tuesday,
which remained inconclusive.
Labour ministry officials claimed that the unions were not being
reasonable. “On their demand for a Rs18,000 minimum wage for all
workers, I don’t think there can be a quick consensus as industries are
not in favour of it,” one official said.
