Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: Tens of thousands of workers affiliated to trade unions led a strike in parts of India on Wednesday, disrupting transport and banking services in a protest against privatisation and the growing impact of an economic slowdown on jobs.
More than 10 national trade unions affiliated to left-wing parties took part in the protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's labour reforms that include the privatisation of state run companies Air India and oil major BPCL, as well as a merger of public-sector banks.
"The Ministry of Labour has failed to assure on any of the demands of workers which called a meeting on January 2, 2020. The attitude of the government is that of contempt towards labour as we construe from its policies and actions," the 10 CTUs said in a joint statement.
"We expect participation of not less than 25 crore of working people in the forthcoming National General Strike on January 8, 2020, to be followed by many more actions seeking reversal of the anti-worker, anti-people, anti-national policies of the Government," it said.
Increase minimum wages to Rs 21,000, prevent privatisation of Public Sector Undertakings, prevent modification of labour laws to benefit businessmen, reduce inflation, strengthen public distribution system, ensure minimum support price for farmers' produce, farm loan waiver, solve unemployment crisis are among the various demands raised by the trade unions.
Transportation in Kerala was visibly affected on Wednesday morning as KSRTC unions boycotted work. In Howrah and North 24 Paragana of Bengal, trains were stopped as part of the strike.
While buses, taxis and auto rickshaws stayed off the road in West Bengal, Kerala and some other states, the national capital Delhi and the financial hub Mumbai remained largely unaffected.
Hartal-like situation in Kerala
Most shops and establishments across Kerala remained closed during the strike on Wednesday morning. Roads across the state wore a deserted look as Kerala State Transport Corporation (KSRTC), private buses, auto- rickshaws and taxis stayed away but a few private vehicles were seen plying.
Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt was left stranded in a house boat in Alappuzha with a few other foreign tourists, on Wednesday morning after some strikers disrupted their journey through the backwaters. The trade unions had earlier exempted the Kerala's tourism sector from the general strike.
Trade union leaders had earlier clarified that the strike will not affect the tourism industry.
With trade unions of the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and opposition Congress-headed UDF participating in the strike, most of the government staff did not turn up at the Secretariat here. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other ministers also did not attend office.
The weekly state cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday was held on Tuesday. Banking operations also took a hit as most of the PSU bank branches remained shut.
A majority of the 1200 banks of the State Bank of India (SBI) in Kerala are shut, banking sources said. Some bank branches which were open, at Kollam and Thiruvalla were forcefully shut by the striking unions.
CITU general secretary Elamaram Karim and its Kerala state president R Chandrasekharan, who head the joint committee of trade unions, had maintained that no shops would be forcibly shut. Sabarimala pilgrims too have been exempted from the strike, the leaders said.
For Kerala, this would be the second shutdown within a month. The state was paralysed, as usual, in a dawn-to-dusk hartal held on December 17. It was called to protest against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the police action on students of the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi.
Fewer hartals
Last year, Kerala managed to lower the number of hartals considerably. The number of hartals observed in Kerala came down drastically from 120 in 2017 to a mere 13 in 2019.
The state has the dubious honour of holding the maximum number of hartals in the country. However, effective intervention of the High Court and the state government to curb the menace has yielded excellent results.
Exams postponed
In view of the general strike, the Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi and Kannur universities have postponed all examinations scheduled for Wednesday.
However, the JEE Main examination will take place as scheduled.
Calicut and Kalady Universities have not scheduled any examinations on Wednesday.
All India shutdown
Several banks have already informed stock exchanges about the Wednesday strike and its impact on banking services.
Various bank employee associations, including AIBEA, All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), BEFI, INBEF, INBOC and Bank Karmachari Sena Mahasangh (BKSM), have expressed their willingness to participate in the strike.
CH Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees' Association, said the proposed merger of 10 state banks into four banks would affect jobs and could hit the recovery of bad loans amounting to near $140 billion.
Banking services like deposit and withdrawal, cheque clearing and instrument issuance are expected to be impacted due to the strike.
However, services at private sector banks are unlikely to be impacted. The government has warned its employees that participation in the strike in any form would lead to deduction of wages and "appropriate disciplinary action".
Worst slowdown in decades
Asia's third largest economy is facing its worst slowdown in decades, and the government on Tuesday forecast 5% growth for the current financial year, the slowest pace in 11 years, blamed on weakening demand and private investment.
In a tweet, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the policies of the Modi government have created "catastrophic unemployment" and weakened state-run companies.
Thousands of people have lost jobs in the manufacturing and the construction sector and debt-ridden companies have cut their investment plans.
(With inputs from agencies)
