AITUC State president Ravula Ravindranath has ridiculed the Centre for reducing labour laws into four Labour Codes allegedly to benefit employers.
Mr. Ravindranath inaugurated the seventh day of the relay hunger strike being organised to oppose the privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), at the Gandhi statue near the GVMC building here on Thursday.
Addressing the protesting workers, Mr. Ravindranath alleged that the Centre was trying to hand over the nation’s public assets to corporate firms as part of which it was planning to privatise Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Railways, BSNL, oil sector and defence. “It has brought out three Farm Laws to benefit the corporate groups while depriving farmers of their rights,” he added.
“The government was not interested in listening to the pleas of farmers who have been waging struggles on the borders of Delhi for months. Similarly, workers of VSP have been agitating for the past two months but the Centre seems to be unconcerned about their demands,” he said.
He said that the moves of the Centre would be opposed unitedly. The agitating farmers in Delhi would come to Visakhapatnam on April 18 to express their solidarity with the people, he said.
All trade unions, people’s organisations, Vizag Steel Plant and Public Sector Protection Committee chairman M. Jaggu Naidu, CITU president Kumar, leaders Vamana Murthy, Rahaman, Manmadha Rao, Suresh, Priyanka, P. Mani, N. Subba Rao and Y. Raju were among those who attended.
