The Central Trade Unions, which had jointly given the call for a country-wide general strike that would end on Wednesday, claimed total success and said that they would work towards the ouster of the Narendra Modi government if it did not stop attacking union leaders, talk to them and roll back the codification of laws that, they claim, are anti-workers.
Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress, told THE WEEK that they would be keeping their eyes open on the government's moves over the next few months in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections.
The trade unions have a list of 44 laws that, they believe, were enacted after prolonged struggle, and say that the Modi government has now undone all the enabling features by reducing them to four. Particularly mentioned was the fixed-term employment notification which, they say, adversely affects job security in the country.
Kaur pointed out the introduction of the Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill 2019 by Union minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Tuesday in Lok Sabha, and charged him with telling “a pack of lies” in Parliament. “He told the house a lie when he said there was no process laid out for the recognition of trade unions. There is; and it is on the basis of that we were invited for talks including tripartite talks, represented at the Labour Organisations. This government is usurping the functions of trade unions and dismantling them, and this is dangerous for democracy.” According to the trade union leaders, by this amendment the government will “pick and choose trade unions”.
The leaders of the Central Trade Unions claimed that more than 20 crore people had participated in the strike. While there was “complete bandh” in seven states on January 8, four more states observed a similar total bandh on Wednesday.
While the strike was 100 per cent successful in the industrial sectors including manufacturing, government, banking and insurance, markets, schools and colleges were shut and public transport had come to a halt.
“The response was bigger than we had anticipated, indicating how people in all these sectors feel crushed. Of particular importance is the support we got from college and university teachers and students—including the Delhi University and the JNU, and the construction workers, farmers and those in the unorganised sectors,” elaborated Kaur.
These unions had given call for a one-day strike in 2015, and another one-day strike in 2016. “But the response to the latest strike has made it the biggest so far,” she said, adding they would now mobilise support for the three-day defence employees' strike slated for January 23-25.
