Warm greetings from Central Trade Unions

Historic General Strike on Sept 7

The following is the statement issued by the central trade unions on September 7, 2010 from New Delhi

WARM greetings to the working people of the country for the historic strike on September 7, 2010! The central trade unions of the country - INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, AICCTU, UTUC warmly greet the working people of the country for the historic strike against price rise, violation of labour laws, disinvestment in profit making public sector, retrenchment, layoff and also against contractualisation.

The general strike was also called to demand adequate central funds for the social security of the unorganised labour, who constitute more than 90 per cent of the workforce of the country today.

The strike had its impact on every branch of economy. There was not a single state where there was no strike, even in Sikkim and Kashmir Valley, banks, insurance and a number of other institutions were closed. Lakhs of workers in coal, power, telecommunication, petroleum, post-offices, state government offices, defence, road transport, anganwadi and construction had gone on strike. The rural unorganised workers had also gallantly responded to the call. Thousands of workers had brought out processions, held dharnas and protested against price rise.

All the metropolitan cities were deeply affected. Not only West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, even Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and other states have vigorously responded to the strike call. A number of flights have been cancelled due to the strike in the petroleum sector.

The unity achieved after 63 years has inspired workers to move into action. Not only public sector, in private sector also, the strike was significant.

According to our estimate, more than ten crore workers have participated.

While greeting the workers warmly for the united action, the central trade unions call upon them to prepare for a massive march to parliament in the month of February, 2011 if the issues raised by the trade unions are not sorted out.

People's Democrachy 12092010