After the unsatisfactory hike in wages by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of 42%, the central trade union strikers have refused to call off tomorrow’s ‘Bharat Bandh’. So 2nd September will see banks, government offices and factories shut down for the day while the transport will be off ground from 6 am to 6 pm.
The strike, which is organised jointly by central trade unions and independent national federations of employees, including Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, is aimed to work towards the implementation of social security measures, which are “under attack”. These include pension for post-2004 entrants in central government services, who have had to face cuts in interest on small savings deposits.
As many as 10 trade unions including INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, UTUC and LPF have given call for the strike tomorrow, i.e., September 2 stating that their demands haven’t been met even after the wages were raised to Rs. 350. The government, though, aims to raise Rs. 55,907 crore ($8.35 billion) through privatisation this fiscal year and curb the situation.
As many as 15 crore workers of government and private sectors will go on strike tomorrow across Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. However train services won’t be affected as Railway employees have so far not indicated whether they will join the strike or not although the auto-rickshaw unions have decided to keep off the roads on Friday.
