Strike by 10 trade unions begins; transport, banking to be hit

New Delhi, Sep 2 (PTI) Essential services such as bankingand transport are likely to be hit today as 10 central tradeunions go on one-day nationwide strike, protesting against"anti-worker" changes in labour laws and the Centre’s"indifference" to their demands for better wages. "The strike is on. We are getting good response. Moreinformation will pour in after sometime. Around 90 per centworkers at BHEL’s plant in Tiruchirapalli have not reported atwork in the morning shift," Centre for Indian Trade Unions(CITU) General Secretary Tapan Kumar Sen told PTI. He further said, "Vizag steel plant is 100 per centclosed. At some places there would be instances of ‘RailRoko’. This is going to be a successful strike as more than 15crore workers will come on streets to protest." Last year, these 10 trade unions had called nationwidestrike and around 15 crore workers participated in theagitation. Sen further said, "Gurgaon industrial area is completelyclosed and the police have arrested about 12 people inManesar area. All this information indicates that the strikewill be bigger this time." All major unions, excluding RSS-associated BMS (BhartiyaMazdoor Sangh), have joined the strike call, terming thegovernment’s assurances to look into their demands and therecent announcements for two-year bonus and hike in minimumwage as "completely inadequate". On its part, the government has asked all ministries toensure that public utilities and essential services are notaffected. Secretaries of all departments have been asked totake effective measures for smooth running of various servicescoming under their respective ministries. Yesterday, speaking to reporters in Mumbai, LabourMinister Bandaru Dattatreya blamed the previous UPA regime forthe issues faced by the workers and said the presentgovernment "doesn’t want a confrontation with labour unions"and rather needs their cooperation and support. He had conceded banking and insurance sectors are likelyto be impacted more due to the strike today, while adding thatout of 12 demands of the trade unions, eight are related tothe labour department and seven of them have been agreed to.PTI KKSMKJ