Trade unions to go ahead with strike on Friday

NEW DELHI: Central trade unions on Wednesday decided to go ahead with nationwide general strike on September 2 despite the government announcing a substantial hike in minimum wages and release of pending bonus for two years to appease them on Tuesday.

Like last year, RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Singh (BMS) will not support the 10 central trade unions for the strike. Last year, all trade unions including BMS had initially called for a strike on September 2 but BMS had pulled out just two days before.

This year, BMS did not call for the strike because the inter-ministerial committee on labour led by finance minister Arun Jaitley had met the union twice this month while completely ignoring the strike call by other trade unions.

“It is unfortunate that during the past one year the group of ministers appointed for discussion on 12-point charter of demands has not convened even a single meeting and has instead only been talking to BMS. We denounce such undemocratic bias of the government,” the central trade unions said in ajoint statement issued on Wednesday