Massive workers’ strike in India tomorrow
India Blooms News Service
New Delhi, Feb 27 (IBNS): Millions of workers of varied political allegiances are expected to go on strike across the country on Tuesday to express their anger at soaring prices and to back demands for improved rights for employees, crippling normal public life.
Transport, banking and postal systems could be among the worst hit, political analysts said, as government's attempts to avert the nationwide 24-hour strike called by 11 trade unions seemed unsuccessful till late Monday.
The unions, affiliated to most of the mainstream political parties, have a long list of demands including measures to tame inflation, social security cover for workers in the vast unorganised labour sector, and the stopping of free market policies like disinvestment in public sector.
Only a handful of unions, backed by the ruling Congress party and its allies such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) have said they will not participate.
The strike will be the biggest ever “show of unity by all trade unions,” said Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress, which is associated with communist political parties.
The walkout against the government’s “anti-worker and neoliberal policies” will cover “all sectors except the railways,” Dasgupta said.
Even though state run Air India and Indian Railways said they will be operating normally, key sectors such as banking, telecoms, steel and power may see a low turnout, with communist strongholds such as the states Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal expected to fare the worst.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s appeals to the unions to desist from going for the industrial action through open advertisements issued by the labour ministry in leading national dailies have been largely ignored, media reports said.
The strike poses a new headache for Singh’s government as it grapples with weakening economic growth and faces elections in several states after a year of political turmoil exacerbated by multi-billion dollar corruption scandals.
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