Hyderabad, Jan 3: The Central Committee of the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) has decided that it will join the nation-wide General Strike on February 23 and 24.
The strike call was given by Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and Independent Sectoral All India Federations and Associations against the anti-labour, anti-people and pro-corporate policies of the Central Government.
In a circular to all bank unions and members on Sunday night, AIBEA General Secretary Ch Venkatachalam called upon them to get ready to participate in the historic strike.
He said in 2021 United Forum of Bank Unions’ (UFBU) had given a call for two-day strike on March 15 and 16 against the Centre’s announcement to privatise two public sector Banks.
We ended the year 2021 again with the massive two-day strike on December 16 and 17 against the Centre’s decision to introduce Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
Mr Venkatachalam said the struggle is not only to save the rights and lives/ livelihood of the people but also to save the country’s economy and the entire democratic system and the society as a whole from disaster and destruction being engineered allegedly by the authoritarian forces in governance with the active support of private corporate, both domestic and foreign.
Mr Venkatachalam said the latest move by the Union government is the proposed amendment of the Bank Nationalisation Acts for privatising the banks in favour of the same defaulter-corporate community.
In fact, the Government had decided to bring the Bill in the recent concluded Winter Session of Parliament but due to our struggle and protest actions, it was not introduced, he said, the danger looms large.
The AIBEA General Secretary said in the midst of this horrifying situation for the country and the people, the Government at the Centre has been hastily pushing through its project of all out reckless privatisation through multi-pronged routes of all national productive assets and PSUs including mineral resources, financial institutions like banks and insurance, security sensitive sectors like defence production and major Ports, petroleum and Natural gas, Railways, Airlines & Airports, Electricity, Steel, Engineering, Highways, Telecom and postal services.
The situation has been deteriorating, from bad to worse. Phenomenon of increasing unemployment has been competing with faster pace of job-losses arising out of destruction and extreme degeneration of existing employment and livelihood-avenues, throwing not only the working people in rural and urban areas but also the entire youth-student generations in a situation of futureless destitution and desperation.
In midst of such widespread impoverishment and hunger, pushing almost half of the populace below the destitution level poverty line, prices of essential commodities are skyrocketing to unbearable level. Price rise is not just happening, it is being made to happen by the Government’s atrocious discriminatory taxation and other policies, only to benefit the small big-business/trader/corporate section of society.
The top union leader said the high indirect tax rates through GST mechanism on essential daily requirements, increasing user charges of almost all public utilities including health, medicine, education are further adding fuel to fire – all contributing to increasing intensity of hunger and distress among the mass of the people.
Labour Codes are enacted by way of repealing 29 existing labour laws and the Codes are aimed at completely demolishing and altering working conditions, rights at workplace and trade union rights in favour of the employers’ class.
We must carry forward this struggle to its logical conclusion of decisive defeat of this retrograde policy regime, their perpetrator corporate class and their agents in governance, Mr Venkatachalam, also the National Council member of Communist Party of India (CPI) said. (UNI)
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