Strike by bank, LIC staff hits services in Jalandhar

Jalandhar, March 28

On the call of the Central Trade Unions, hundreds of employees of the Punjab Bank Employees’ Federation went on a two-day strike here from Monday. The strike hit businesses as huge transactions at the end of the financial year got held up due to the strike.

Employees of LIC, GIC, roadways, electricity, BSNL and industrial workers also observed a total strike and gathered in front of the LIC premises here. They raised slogans against the anti-worker policies of the government and demanded strengthening of public sector banks, stopping of privatisation of banks, starting recovering of bad loans, increasing rate of interest on bank deposits, withdrawal of levying of high service charges, restoring DA linked pension scheme, stopping outsourcing, starting recruitments and regularisation of all contractual employees.

The bank unions opposed the privatisation of banks and restoration of the old pension scheme. The rally was addressed by Dalip Pathak, Vinod Sharma, RK Bhagat, HS Veer, Baljeet Kaur, RK Jolly, Balwant Rai, Sanjeev Bhalla and others.

Members of the Northern Zone Insurance Employees’ Association said they were participating in the strike to show their resentment against the anti-labour and anti-people policies of the government.

Addressing a gathering, Ved Parkash, Divisional Secretary of the association, said, “The government is going to change the old pattern of distribution of profit between the policy holders and the government. Previously, it was in the ratio of 95:5, but now it will be in the ratio of 90:10. This is a blow to the interests of the policy holders and we are against it.” The association members demanded that the government must arrest the price rise, increase the minimum wages to Rs 26,000 per month, start the recruitment process in Class III and IV in LIC and give remunerative prices to farmers and social security to unorganised workers. The gathering was also addressed by Pankaj Bhardwaj, Renu Kalra, Tajinder Kaur, Parveen Chhabra and Rajneesh Sehgal.