Unions’ stir to hit essential services today

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 1

The battle lines drawn by the central trade unions against the Centre remained deep drawn on the penultimate day of the nationwide strike of workers, even as the government made attempts to mollify workers. The strike has been called to pressure the Centre to accept a charter of 12 demands of workers.

National secretary of AITUC (affiliated to the CPI) Vidya Sagar Giri said the cadres of all 10 trade union supporting the strike were charged up to ensure its success. “The strike will be peaceful, but it will be the biggest-ever general strike in the country. It will paralyse all sectors, barring the Railways that has been kept outside its purview,” Giri said. In the calculus of unions, banking, health, insurance, defence (manufacturing units), coal mining, shipping, ports and road transport will be the most-affected fields.

Workers in both organised and unorganised sectors have been exhorted to participate in the strike. Workers in the unorganised sector account for about 90 per cent of the country’s workforce.

Giri said the reports from across the states suggested that there was immense enthusiasm among workers about the strike. The government was solely responsible for it as the workers’ demands had been hanging fire since 2009, he added.