CITU activists protest new labour codes, privatisation
Shimla, August 9
On the call of central trade unions and national federations, members of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) today staged a protest against the Central and state governments’ alleged anti-labour, anti-employee and anti-people policies.
The members of the union gathered outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office and raised slogans against the state government and the Centre.
CITU state president Vijender Mehra said, “These protests are primarily aimed at getting the four anti-labour codes repealed, formulation of policies for outsourced workers and reinstatement of sacked NHM workers, minimum wages for workers, stopping high inflation and regularisation of workers and against privatisation of public enterprises.”
He added: “The citizens of the country have been grappling with the crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality. The inflation is increasing due to the neoliberal and pro-capitalist policies of the Central Government. Due to the weakening of the public distribution system, rising inflation has broken the back of the public. There is a huge increase in the prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas, food items.”
CITU’s general secretary Prem Gautam said, “Ensure a minimum wage of Rs 26,000 per month and pension to all workers, repeal four anti-labour codes and Electricity Amendment Bill, regularise all workers by banning part-time, multi-purpose, multi-tasking, temporary, casual, fixed term, contractual and outsourced systems.”
Dharamsala: Members of various trade unions, including CITU and INTUC, organised a protest march against the privatisation policy of the Union Government. They held a protest outside Dharamsala police station. Ravinder Katoch, district president of CITU, said that the workers’ organisations would hold protests across the country against the anti-labour policies of the Centre.
The protesters demanded a minimum 200 days of employment for labourers under MGNREGA, increase in minimum wages and changes in 44 labour laws.
