New Delhi: The Left affiliated Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) will begin its two-day nationwide general strike on Tuesday to protest against “anti-labour, anti-people and anti-national policies” of the Modi government. All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch, Bhumi Adhikar Andolan and several government unions have extended support to the strike that will see demonstrations, rasta roko and rail roko, especially in the rural parts of the country.
In a press release, the CITU said the BJP government had made “desperate attempts” to make “gross pro-employer changes in labour laws” ignoring the viewpoints of trade unions. “Unilaterally and through arbitrary notification on fixed term employment through executive order on the one hand and through gradual replacement of workers by apprentices in various establishments on the other, the very concept of regular employment and job security is being sought to be wiped out from the workplaces,” it said.
“Now the Cabinet has come out with amendments in the Trade Union Act, 1926, which are irrational, highly discretionary and extremely damaging to the independent functioning of unions. It is designed with the dubious intention to cripple unions, to promote pocket unions or tout unions.”
The CITU also took a dig at the FDI policy, saying it was aimed at “looting the national assets and resources on the one hand and destruction of country’s economic base on the other”. Anurag Saxena, general secretary of Delhi unit of the CITU, said labourers, workers, government and bank employees would participate in the protest march.
“Industries, factories across Delhi will remain shut tomorrow. Employees of many banks, government departments will also participate in the protest,” Saxena told IANS. AIKS said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had betrayed all promises he had made to farmers made before the 2014 elections.
AIKS President Ashok Dhawale said the BJP rule of past four-and-half-year had witnessed “aggressive pursuit” of neo-liberal economic policies, which mounted burden on the farmers and labour force. “The peasantry is being dispossessed and forced to sell its labour in the unorganised sector under precarious conditions. This situation calls for greater coordinated actions between the working class and the peasantry,” the release quoted Dhawale as saying.
The CITU had taken active part in the Kisan Mukti March that was held in November last year in the national capital over the demands of better crop remuneration and farm loan waiver. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has also planned one-day ‘dharna’ in Delhi on Tuesday, which will be attended by its leader and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, to demand higher MSP for paddy.