Some of the essential services related to banking, transportation, railways and electricity are likely to be impacted during a two-day nationwide strike called by a joint forum of central trade unions beginning Monday.
The strike notices were given by workers’ unions of various sectors such as coal, steel, oil, telecom, postal, income tax, copper, banks and insurance.
The unions’ demands include the scrapping of the proposed changes in labour laws, privatisation of any form and the national monetisation pipeline. Increased allocation of wages under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and regularisation of contract workers are also part of their demands.
The Maharashtra government has invoked the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA) on employees of the three state-run power companies to prevent them from participating in the two-day nationwide strike called by various trade unions from March 28. The act prohibits them from participating in strikes. The government’s action came amid fears of power supply getting interrupted. Nevertheless, the employees will protest at 11 am in Mumbai.
Amarjeet Kaur, All Indian Trade Union Congress General Secretary,said that they are expecting participation of over 20 crore formal and informal workers with mass mobilisation of workers across the country.
CPI(M) MP Bikashranjan Bhattacharyya moves the motion for suspension of business in Rajya Sabha under Rule 267 to discuss the issue of the 2-day nationwide strike.
Power sector employees across the country will observe a strike on March 28 and 29 in protest against the privatisation policies of the central government, a workers’ union leader said on Wednesday. The main demands of the power sector employees and engineers are that the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 should be withdrawn, all types of privatisation processes should be stopped and the decision to privatise power sector, especially in Union Territories of Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman Diu and Puducherry, should be cancelled. The workers are also demanding inclusion of all the electricity employees appointed after the dissolution of electricity boards under the old pension scheme.
The Power ministry has advised all the state-run utilities and other agencies to be on high alert and ensure round-the-clock electricity supply and stability of the national grid. The advisory has been issued to all states, central public sector undertakings, central electricity authority, national load dispatch centre and regional load dispatch centres. “The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has called for a nationwide strike with effect from 06:00 hrs of March 28 to 06:00 hrs of March 30, 2022,” an advisory issued by the power ministry said.
Bank employees’ unions have they will support the strike. Bharat Bandh on Monday, Tuesday – Banking services to remain affected. Bank employees demand speedy recovery of bad loans, higher deposit rates by banks, lower service charges on customers as well as restoration of old pension schemes for staff.
Workers of roadways, transport and electricity departments have also decided to join the strike in spite of the impending threat of ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) which is likely to be imposed in Haryana and Chandigarh Trade unions, including INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC are part of the joint forum.
