Joint Statement
of Trade Unions
Make the Industrial Strike and Grameen Bandh on 16th February A Success
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha(SKM) along with 10 CTUs has given a Call for a country-wide Grameen Bandh and Industrial Strike scheduled for 16th February against the anti-farmer and anti-worker policies of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. The SKM also held a meeting with Other Trade Unions including us. We have also called for Industrial Strike along with Grameen Bandh on Feb.16th 2024.
While the decade long rule of BJP-led government has not solved the basic issues of the people at large despite loud proclamations of creating two crore jobs every year, depositing Rs 15 lakhs into the bank accounts of the poor et al, reality betrays such promises. Unemployment is at its highest as was fifty years back. The talk of “acche din”, “shining India” in the last ten years has become a cruel joke in the light of the actual facts. The real wages of the working masses have fallen by 20% and price rise has been unprecedented in this period. As a means of depressing wages of the workers, employment on contract or outsourcing has become the norm with temporary labour overwhelming the regular workforce in both the private and public sectors. Workers are denied status and wages by terming them voluntary, scheme,gig etc. With privatization of public sector undertakings as a policy in the service of the corporate sector, the drive towards employment of contract labour is being further intensified.By introducing the floor wage through the Wage Code the BJP government is trying to lower the minimum wage further depressing wages and pushing workers further into destitution.The BJP government has made its intent clear when the Finance Minister declared that all PSUs ,including “navaratnas” ,profit-making units will be privatized except a handful. Nationalised banks have also become targets of this policy. Monetisation of government assets is another nomer for privatization. In order to further fleece the working class and stifle the hard won rights the government has brought in the four labour codes to benefit the corporate sector of the country and foreign capital.Employees PF is open for corporate loot and the government refuses to restore the OPS in place of the CPS. Now the government is allowing Israel to recruit Indian workers,anyway crushed by unemployment, to take them to war zone to replace Palestinian workers.
While in the last five years the profits of the big capitalists in the country have risen by 30%, India ranks 111 among 125 countries in the global hunger index. “Shining India” ranks 132 in the global human development index among 191 countries. India has become notorious under the present regime in regard to press freedom and is considered dangerous for journalists having achieved 161 rank among 180 countries. Having mastered the atrocious art of divisive politics of communalism, the BJP is aggressively playing the hindutva card both to opiate the majority community thereby diverting them from the real issues and for electoral gains. In these conditions, the working class should draw lessons from the recent prolonged struggle of the farmers against the three agri-laws that compelled the Modi government to withdraw these laws. The SKM which spearheaded the movement is demanding the implementation of the promises made by the government.
In the present dangerous political scenario, the working class has to rise in one voice against the pro-corporate,anti-people policies of the BJP government and as part of this task we call upon working class to make the Industrial Strike slated on February 16th a success.
T.Srinivas
General Secretery
IFTU
Gautam Mody
Genaral Secretery
NTUI
Ashim Roy
Genaral Secretery
HMKP
Loganathan
Genaral Secretery
NDLF (TN)
S.Venkateshwar Rao
President
IFTU
R.Manasayya
General Secretery
TUCI
A.K.Siva
State Coordinator
NDLF SCC ( TN)
Vijay Kumar President AIFTU(New)
Dugai Murmu
General Secretery
ECLTSAU (Asansol)
Munna Prasad
Member CC
IMK
