The historic two days general strike called by Indian central trade unions on 20 and 21 February received unprecedented support among workers across India affecting all vital sectors.
The trade unions’ 10 point demands include measures to contain price rise, employment generation, strict enforcement of labour laws and universal social security cover for organized and unorganized workers.
Claiming that the general strike is total in all sectors by all workers, in a press release issued on 20 February, 2013, unions stated that, “the unprecedented response to the call of strike throughout the country much beyond our expectations reflects truly the anger of the people against the persistent increase in the prices of diesel, gas, coal, electricity and other essential goods for the bare need of the common people.”
Workers from all the major and strategic sectors participated, such as banks, insurance and other financial sectors, oil & petroleum, road transport (both public and private sectors) in many states, defence (civilian), postal, telecom, govt. employees in several states, several departments of Central govt., port & dock, coal & non-coal mines, power and plantation sectors. There was also a large presence of unorganized workers in the protest demonstrations.
The two days of general strike is a continuation of joint efforts by Indian trade unions that started in 2009. Since then to express resentment over anti-labour policies and government’s inaction to protect workers’ interests, cutting across political ideologies, major central trade unions have come together in a single platform and taken a number of actions.
However, further indifference of the government of India forced unions to intensify their efforts and call for general strike for two consecutive days on 20-21 February 2013 to pressure the Government of India to address some of the basic human and trade union rights issues faced by workers across the country
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