THE views aired by the chief economic advisor (CEA) to the central government and by the president of FICCI calling for privatisation of public sector banks have drawn the attention of the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI).

Centring round the recent episode of scam in some banks, the chief economic advisor to the government of India, has raised the question of ownership pattern of public sector banks (PSBs) meaning thereby that the central government should move first with its agenda for privatisation of the PSBs.

THE vehicle strike in Kerala on January 24, 2018 from dawn to desk organised by Kerala Transport Industry Protection Council comprising CITU, AITUC, INTUC, HMS, STU, Janata Dal Trade Union Centre, TUCI, KTUC and owners associations against abnormal increase in prices of petrol and diesel due to the wrong policies of the Modi government, was total and successful. The workers of auto, taxi, private bus, KSRTC bus, lorry, driving school, automobile workshops, spare parts distributors, etc along with the owners of vehicles participated in the strike.

IT was a historic day for the trade union movement of the country on many counts, when nearly sixty lakh scheme workers almost 90 per cent of whom are women, went on strike on January 17, 2018. This is for the first time that the joint platform of central trade unions has given a call for strike for a particular sector of workers.

THE public transport workers numbering about 1,50,000 working in Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporations (TNSTC) across the state are on war path since January 4 in protest against the adamant attitude of the state government in meeting their genuine demands, which are as follows:

1)    To make the pay and allowance equal to the drivers of the state government and other local bodies in the state. Currently the workers are getting Rs 700 less at the basic stage.

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on January 10, has denounced the government’s move in registering FIR against the journalist of Tribune, Rachna Khaira and her sources for exposing the leakage-prone systemic fault in Aadhar administration. In fact the journalist should have been rewarded for successfully investigating the faults in the UIDAI system in respect of protecting individual data for preventing intrusion on peoples’ right to privacy, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court also.