Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Bank strike

The two-day nationwide bank strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions to protest merger and consolidation in the public sector banks is unwarranted. Bank employees are among the most privileged citizens, enjoying a good standard of life compared to millions of unemployed and underemployed families that languish in poverty and penury. They have made it a practice to strike work. Successive governments at the Centre are to blame for this. Their lukewarm approach to vital matters affecting the daily lives of the people has emboldened not only the bank employees but others as well to resort to irresponsible action.

Durai Gajapathy,

Chennai

The merger of the subsidiary banks with the SBI will give pension as a third retirement benefit to the employees. Yet, the trade unions oppose the merger. The banking sector is moving away from office-based banking with the advent of technology. The trade unions’ allegation that the government’s initiatives will affect branch expansion is thus unconvincing. And bank employees by themselves cannot stop the flow of FDI into any sector.

The two-day strike, which will achieve nothing, will only help private banks increase their business.

R. Sajan,

Aluva

The strike could have been prevented had the government been serious in its discussions on issues such as merger of banks, allowing FDI in the banking sector, settling the employee-benefit issues, etc., with the trade unions.

Instead of trying to hammer out a solution, it kept appealing to bank staff not to strike work. Two days of non-functioning of banks will have a serious impact on the economy.

S. Ramakrishnasayee,

Ranipet

The demands of the bank employees such as compassionate appointments, recruitment, wage revision that has fallen due, one more option for pension for a large section of employees who were left out of its purview and action against chronic defaulters are totally justified. The people should understand that while the strike may cause inconvenience, the bank staff are left with no other option.

J. Anantha Padmanabhan,

Srirangam

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Changing landscape
Potter, Puttar, so what?
Reinvigorate secular nationalism
Kashmir defines Indian identity
Whatever happened to good old, simple banking?
He believes credit crunch will work in his favour
Why Asia should matter to Canadian voters
Corrections and clarifications
Bank strike
Insensitive
Attacks on minorities

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu