The Hindu : Strike to protect workers' right: Balanandan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Strike to protect workers' right: Balanandan

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, FEB. 21. The nation-wide strike call given by the trade unions on February 24 was part of its struggle for reinstating the workers' legitimate right for collective bargaining, the CITU all-India vice-president, E. Balanandan, has said.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. Balanandan said that workers from all sectors, including the banking, insurance, motor, Defence, Central and State Government employees, private sector employees and employees from the unorganised sectors would join the nation-wide strike.

Mr. Balanandan said the agitation would focus on the twin issues of protecting the workers' right to strike and demanding the withdrawal of the anti-people policies being implemented in the name of globalisation. The right to work was the right for life, he said.

He said the right for collective bargaining was allowed all over the world, especially in the capitalist system where it was seen as highly necessary to increase the standards of living.

He criticised the Central Government for announcing sops in view of the elections. The much-lauded DA merger of the Central Government employees was not a gift from the Vajpayee Government, but had been stipulated by the Fifth Pay Commission, Mr. Balanandan said.

The CITU leader K. Chandran Pillai, MP, and the district secretary, K.A. Chackochan, were also present at the news conference.

INTUC not to take part

The Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) State president, K. Suresh Babu, has said that the INTUC would not take part in the country-wide strike on February 24.

In a statement in Thiruvananthapuram today, Mr. Suresh Babu said a decision to this effect had been taken by the INTUC national working committee held at Varanasi from January 16 to 18. The committee was of the view that the problems faced by the working class in the country could not be solved with a one-day strike. The strike would only cause heavy losses to the national economy and hardship to the people, he said.

The INTUC, he said, would be in the forefront of any other form of struggle to resist the `anti-worker' policies of the Central Government.

RBI staff support it

The Reserve Bank Employees' Association (RBEA) has said that it would join the strike on February 24. In a statement here today, the RBEA secretary, Thomas Joseph, said the RBI employees in Thiruvananthapuram would join the strike in response to the call by the All-India Reserve Bank Employees' Association (AIRBEA). He alleged that the bank management was trying to intimidate the workers with threats. The RBI staff would join the strike disregarding such threats, he said.

`Politically motivated'

The NGO Sangh has termed the February 24 general strike declared by a section of the employees as ``politically motivated''. In a statement in Kollam, the State president of the Sangh, M.S. Shyam Kumar, said the Prime Minister had made it clear that the Centre in no way favoured a ban on the right of the Government employees to strike.

Moreover, the Prime Minister had expressed the desire for a consensus on the issue for the enactment of a suitable provision. Mr. Shyam Kumar said that following the dissolution of the Lok Sabha, such an enactment could not be made. In such a situation a strike to demand the enactment of an ad hoc provision could not be justified. When Parliament was in session, none of the MPs had presented the issue before the House. Hence, the Sangh demands that any strike on the issue should be kept pending till the next the Lok Sabha comes in session. The State also called upon the employees to ignore the strike call.

BSNL staff to keep off

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Mazdoor Sangh will not participate in the general strike called by the Left trade unions on February 24, the State president, K.S. Sreekumar, said in a press release in Kozhikode today.

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