THE meeting of the Central Trade Unions held on February 22 at the INTUC Office in New Delhi expressed indignation and strongly condemned the government of the day for their intensified attack on the lives and livelihood of the people and seriously compromising the national interest. 

In a statement issued on February 23, they said attacks on working class centering around dismantling labour laws which are designed to completely casualise employment conditions through various routes like amending Contract Labour Act, introducing Fixed Term Employment etc, have assumed aggressive proportions. Further it is noted that the government is out to erase the public sector from the industrial map of the country.  Specific cases of attacks – privatisation of railways, opening up of coal mining to private and foreign companies without any restriction whatsoever, mass scale privatisation as well as destruction of defence production network through widespread outsourcing, thereby dismantling almost half of the ordnance factories – are some examples of the gross anti-people and anti-national actions of the government. Accumulation of huge non-performing assets of the public sector banks which is caused due to pilferage of bank-funds by the deliberately defaulting private corporates, coupled with recent explosion of frauds using bank-funds engineered by the same corporates, is also a reflection of the anti-national act of the government which is indulging and patronising the same big-business class.

The Central Trade Unions reiterated their utter condemnation of the union budget 2018-19 which is basically anti-worker and anti-people in character, which has engineered a deception on the mass of the people through loud populist slogans without actually making any resource allocations.

The Central Trade Unions denounced the government of India’s surreptitious move in postponing the 47th session of Indian Labour Conference, thereby reducing tripartism to a mockery.  

CTUOs noted with satisfaction the surging struggles by the working people in different sectors throughout the country, both organised and unorganised.

The workers and federations of coal and transport have been preparing for united industry-wide actions to be undertaken shortly. All the federations of defence production workers have jointly decided to go in for nationwide strike on March 15. Many more sectoral actions are in the offing.

The CTU’s while reiterating their resolve to intensify preparations for indefinite strike in the days to come, have called upon all their constituents and working people in general irrespective of affiliations to jointly observe all India protest day on March 15

·       in solidarity with the striking defence production workers against anti-national privatiSation move

·       against the anti-people deceptive union budget 2018-19

The CTU’s will meet shortly after March 15 to decide their next course of united countrywide action.

Signatories of the statement include INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, UTUC and LPF.