New Delhi, January 9; GANASHAKTI: The following press release has been issued to the media by the Central Trade Unions in the press-meet on 9th January 2019 at New Delhi.
The entire trade union movement in the country had jointly given a call for two days countrywide general strike on 8-9 January 2019 against anti-labour, anti-people and anti-national policies of BJP-led NDA Government, from the National Convention of Workers held on 28th September 2018 at New Delhi. This decision was forced on the workers as the Central Government deliberately and with impunity, refused to have any meaningful dialogue with the Unions, while at the same time doggedly pursuing pro-employer policies. This could not be tolerated any more as the living conditions of the working people were becoming unbearable.
Reports started pouring in from early morning of 8th January, as workers moved into action, responding spontaneously to the strike call. Assom, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Puducherry, Kerala were reported to be completely shut down on both the days. Bihar and Goa were on industrial strike on 8th January, but have been totally shut down today. The district centres in AP, Telangana, Karnataka, MP have a look of bandh as the road transport has come to a halt. The impact of strike in general was substantive in the states of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh. Telangana reported that RBI was closed on 8th January and NTPC, NFC, BDL are closed on both the days. There big rallies are being taken out on all district collectorates today. In Andhra Pradesh, workers have formed human chains in front of all the government offices in the state. The industrial strike in the states such as Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh was noticeable whereas in these states also the banks, insurance, RMS, post offices, income tax and audit departments were on almost total strike. The bank, insurance and other sectors have remained closed in Mizoram, Arunachal and Nagaland as well. The industrial areas in and around Delhi NRC region have come to a grinding halt. Multinational companies such as Coca Cola, Toyota, Volvo, Samsonite, Crompton, CEAT etc saw a complete shut down in NCR Delhi. A huge joint rally was taken out in Gurgaon on 8th Jan and in Delhi today, from Mandi House to Parliament Street which was attended by all the leaders of the participating CTUs.
Various sectors of economy were severely affected. Banking and insurance were closed all over the country for business including even in Andaman islands. Electricity generation and distribution, coal extraction and movement, non-coal mining, iron ore mining and steel production got affected. Oil extraction, refining and marketing, along with LPG in entire eastern and northern sector was completely paralyzed. Even supply of aviation fuel was affected, resulting in cancellation of many flights. Transport sector, including road and rail, was affected resulting in cancellation of many trains. The BEST, Mumbai city road transport service provided by the Municipal Corporation, recorded a 100% strike. Teachers and students also participated in the strike actively. Participants used all forms of protest such as morchas, dharnas, human chains, rasta roko, rail roko, torchlight processions at night, even people’s poetry recital before the collectorate in Maharashtra! There was complete strike by employees and teachers in Delhi University
and by teachers and students in Jawahar Lal Nehru University. Many state governments declared holidays for schools in view of the strike.
There were big rallies taken out in every state capital and even at district centres. Unorganised sector workers - bidi workers, construction workers, street hawkers, domestic workers - participated massively. EPS-95 and government pensioners took part in a big way. Scheme Workers, including Anganwadi Workers, ASHA, Mid-Day Meal Workers turned out everywhere in large numbers. In Bihar, Anganwadi Workers were on strike for increasing their honorarium since 5th December and the State Government conceded an increase of Rs.1000/-pm on 7thJanuary, yet they continued their strike till today. So is the case of ASHA workers in Bihar. Railway workers and Defense Sector Employees joined in solidarity everywhere. IT Sector employees expressed their solidarity with the strike in Bengaluru and Chennai. Even farmers, who had only recently taken out a mammoth rally in Delhi, marched with the striking workers in their rallies.
There are reports of complete bandh in various urban centres such as Bhopal and Singrauli in MP, Tirupur and Selam in Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru in Karnataka. Reports of huge rallies from Ahemdabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Mehsana in Gujarat, the home state of the Prime Minister and from Kolkata, Bankura, North 24 Parganas, Medinipur, Hoogly, Malda, with jute mills and tea gardens completely shut down in West Bengal ruled by Mamata Banerjee, starkly show the anger of the workers, who took out huge rallies braving the goondaism unleashed by Trinumul and BJP workers.
There are also reports of arrests of striking workers in Assom, Jharkhand and West Bengal, slapping of ESMA and No Work No Pay notices, break in service threats, dismissals of junior workers in various states. Yet, Central Government and State Government Employees went on strike in those states. The striking workers of Daikin were attacked by the company’s bouncers in Neemrana, similar attacks took place in Alwar in Rajasthan. It is an attack on democracy, which we strongly condemn.
This is a partial report that we have received so far, but we congratulate the workers/employees for their exemplary fighting mood. Our reports show their number to be more than 20 crores. The unity shown at the grassroots level by the members of our respective trade unions is praiseworthy. We call upon the working class of the entire country to maintain this unity and prepare for greater struggle against the exploiters of the working class. We also thank the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the international trade union organisations for their solidarity with this stupendous strike action by Indian Workers.
