Bharat Bandh: 18 crore govt workers on one-day nationwide strike to protest against 'minimum wage' decision

Essential services like banking and public transport, as also work at public sector entities, have been hit as 10 central trade unions have gone on a one-day nationwide strike to protest against the government’s “indifference” to their demands for better wages and facilities and the “anti-worker” changes in labour laws.

All major unions, excluding RSS-associated BMS (Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh), have joined the strike, terming the government’s assurances to look into their demands and the recent announcements for two-year bonus and hike in minimum wage as “completely inadequate”.

What is affected?

• The strike has affected the functioning of essential services such as transport and supply of power, gas and oil.
• It has affected public and private sector enterprises, including banks and insurance companies.
• Services of sectors including, electricity, transport, mining, defence, telecom and insuranceare hampered. 
• Many autorickshaw unions have decided to go off the roads in cities such as Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

What is not affected?

• Train services are not affected as Railway employees have not joined the stir.
• School and colleges are not closed.
• Supply of essential commodities is as usual. 
• Emergency services is not be affected.

Unions participating in strike:

• The Leftist trade unions - INTUC, HMS, CITU, AITUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, UTUC and LPF.
• Central public sector undertakings like Coal India, GAIL, ONGC, NTPC, OIL, HAL and BHEL.
• The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has pulled out of the strike. 

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On its part, the government asked all ministries to ensure that public utilities and essential services are not affected. Secretaries of all departments have been asked to take effective measures for smooth running of various services coming under their respective ministries.

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Trade union leaders, however, claimed that the strike would be even bigger than the one last year on September 2 and expected the number of striking workers to swell to as much as 18 crore. Last year, the unions had said that around 14 crore workers participated in the nationwide strike at that time.

The CTUs will strike work protesting against what they call the government’s apathy towards their 12-point charter of demands including a monthly minimum wage of Rs 18,000, controlling price rise and assured minimum monthly pension of Rs 3,000.

“Besides ports and civil aviation, the essential services like transport, telecom and banking will be paralysed. The workers will go on strike in hospitals and power plants but the protest will not affect their normal functioning,” Trade Union Coordination Committee (TUCC) General Secretary S P Tiwari told PTI.

Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya blamed the previous UPA rule for the issues faced by the workers and said the present government “doesn’t want a confrontation with labour unions” and rather needs their cooperation and support.

He said banking and insurance sectors are likely to be impacted more due to the strike tomorrow, while adding that out of 12 demands of the trade unions, eight are related to the labour department and seven of them have been agreed to.

(With PTI Inputs)