Indian trade unions declared July -9 general strike as historic
Trade union leaders congratulated workers on a success strike
Congratulations
to workers, farmers, agri-workers and the people at large
For the
Grand Success of the Nationwide General Strike on 09th July
2025
More than 25
crores participate in the Strike action/Rasta Roko/Rail Roko all over the
country in the formal and informal sectors, in Government, Public sector
enterprises, and industrial areas. There were very large mobilisations in rural
India and also at block-sub-division levels by informal sector
workers, agricultural labour and farmers and other sections of common people.
Participation of students and youth was quite visible in many states. The ranks
and file of Samyukt Kisan Morcha and joint front of Agricultural Labour Unions
played significant role in the mobilisation in rural India
The workers
and their unions in Coal, NMDC Ltd, other non-coal minerals such as iron-ore,
Copper, Bauxite, Aluminium, Gold mines etc, Steel, Banks, LIC, GIC, Petroleum, Electricity,
Postal, Grameen Dak Sevaks, Telecom, Atomic Energy, Cement, Port & Dock Tea
plantations, Jute Mills Public transport, transport of various type in private
sector, state government employees in various sectors/states and central govt
employees in major areas like postal, income-tax, audit and others went on
strike. The workers/employees in most of the Industrial areas in the country
including in many MNCs joined the strike in a big way and organised
processions. The defence sector employees held protest demonstrations for one
hour in support of strike and joined office only after that as per their
decision. The railway unions mobilised and participated in solidarity actions
in. The unions in Construction, Beedi, Anganwadi, ASHA, Mid-Day Meal, and other
Scheme workers, Fisheries, Domestic workers, Hawkers and vendors, Head-load
workers, Home based piece rate workers and Rickshaw, Auto, Taxi were among
those who participated in strike and joined Rasta Roko, Rail Roko at several
places. The students, youth, women and social activists also participated in
processions and dharna actions in many places. The common people supported
these actions. The markets were closed at many places in response to
Strike/Bandh call.
There was
Bandh like situation in many areas of the country like in the states of
Puducherry, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand Tamilnadu, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal,
Odisha, Karnataka, Goa, Meghalaya, Manipur etc. Reports of Partial bandhs were
also received in many segments of Rajasthan, Haryana, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh
etc. There was industrial and sectoral strike held in Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand & Gujarat (the news from
other states are still awaited).
Workers
joined the strike action enmasse throughout the country bravely confronting
numerous intimidating and repressive actions and threats by the
administrations, both of the Centre and many states and also the employers.
The strikers
expressed their anguish against the anti-national policies of the Government to
favour Indian and Foreign corporates and the international finance capital as
against Public Sector Undertakings, Public services as well as against the
small trade and businesses. The government through its policy of National
Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) has put on sale the infrastructure, the natural
resources and national assets which will jeopardize the self-reliant
development of the country, posing threat to its Sovereignty. High time to oppose
and fight these anti national policies, the agitators opined.
The people
expressed themselves against the rising inequalities in the face of
unprecedented price rise of essential commodities, rising unemployment and
underemployment leading to desperation, increased suicides of casual labour and
the unemployed youth.
The
government has not been conducting Indian labour conference for last 10 years,
violating international labour standards and continues taking decisions in
contravention to the interest of labour force including attempts to impose four
labour codes to favour employers in the name of ‘Ease of doing Business’.
The trade
unions consider these labour codes as negation of the labour rights won over
after struggle of 150 years from British Raj onwards. These codes negate our
right to strike, make union registration problematic, de-recognition of
unions easy, the process of conciliation and adjudication cumbersome, winding
up labour courts and introducing tribunal for workers, overriding power to
registrars to de-register unions, definition of wage being changed and the
schedule of occupations for minimum wages applicability being abolished,
Occupational Safety and Health and Working Conditions code designed to put the
right of safety of every worker and also rights and entitlements of workers in
workplace in total jeopardy, the inspections exclusive putting the right of
safety of every worker made in jeopardy, the inspections have been done away
with and facilitators to facilitate employers is being brought, change in
industrial code and its rule for increasing applicability-threshold from 100 to
300 would push out 70 percent of industries out of the coverage of
labour laws, the changes in factory act also would throw out substantial number
of workforce from its coverage, giving the employers class wide discretionary
powers to repress and exploit.
There is no
labour protection fixed term employment is fully devoid of labour law
protection, unlimited apprenticeship and no compulsion of absorption is another
way of exploitation, violation by employers being decriminalised whereas
criminalization of trade union leader on the cards, the limit of
contractor licence proposed to increase from 20 to 50, outsourcing and
contractorization being made normal, recruitment of sanctioned posts not being
done rather there is ban on new posts creation leading to rising unemployment,
trend of appointments of retirees instead of regular employment to unemployed
youth etc.
The unions
are asking for immediate recruitments in the sanctioned posts lying vacant
in all Govt departments and PSUs, creation of more jobs in industries and
services, increase in days and remuneration of MGNREGA workers and enactment of
similar legislation for urban areas. But the government is busy imposing ELI
scheme to incentives employers instead. in order to subsidise their labour cost
and informalize the workforce. In Government departments and in public sector,
instead of providing regular appointments for youth, the policy to recruit the
retirees on the one hand and appointing fixed–term/ apprentices/ trainees/
interns in the core jobs on the other, is being brought as witnessed in
Railways, NMDC Ltd, Steel sector, teaching cadres etc. This is damaging to the
growth of the country where 65 percent population is below the age of 35 years
and the numbers of unemployed is maximum in the age group of 20 to 25 yrs. The
government is making fraudulent claims on employment and provisions of social
security. The existing social security schemes are being weakened and the
attempts being made to bring private players into it.
The attack on the democratic rights as enshrined in Indian Constitution continues more vigorously by this ruling regime and now the attempt to de-franchise the migrant workers is being designed beginning with Bihar as immediate case. The misuse of constitutional bodies is rampant to suppress voices of opposition, the enactments in some states to control and criminalise mass movements is on the cards; the Public Security Bill in Maharashtra and similar enactments in the state of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh etc are the pointers. Now the attempts to snatch the citizenship are on the cards.
This is the
beginning of the prolonged battle in the days to follow in the sectoral levels focused
on determined united resistance, again to culminate into a bigger national
level heightened united action.
The unions
in Delhi after taking out procession in industrial areas effecting strike held
a public rally at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi which was addressed by National
leaders of 10 Central Trade Unions Ashok Singh-INTUC, Amarjeet Kaur-AITUC,
Harbhajan Singh-HMS, Tapan Sen-CITU, Rajiv Dimri-AICCTU, Lata Ben-SEWA,
Chaurasia-AIUTUC, Jawahar-LPF, Dharmendra Verma-TUCC and R S Dagar-UTUC. The
union leaders from ICEU and MEC, and leaders of AIKS and Agri-agriculture
workers also addressed.
The platform
of Central Trade Unions and Independent Sectoral Federations and
INTUC
AITUC
HMS
CITU
AIUTUC
TUCC
SEWA
AICCTU
LPF
UTUC
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