Bharat Bandh on 8th and 9th January 2019

10 Central Trade Unions have come together to call the strike and around 20 crore workers are expected to join the Bharat Bandh .

New Delhi: Around 20 crore workers of the Central Trade Unions have from Tuesday, 8th January 2019 begun a 48-hour nationwide strike to protest against the government’s alleged anti-worker policies. The BJP has, meanwhile, opposed the Bharat Bandh calls.

According to AITUC general secretary Amarjeet Kaur, 10 CTUs have joined hands to go on the strike and 20 crore workers are expected to join the Bharat Bandh. “This is the largest number of workers from formal and informal sectors joining the strike against anti-people and anti-worker policies of the BJP-led central government,” added Kaur while addressing a joint press conference of the 10 CTUs.

As per the AITUC general secretary, sectors like banking, education, coal, steel, telecom, health, electricity, insurance and transport, inter alia, are likely to extend support to the strike.

“We will go on a protest march from Mandi House to Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. Similar protests would be done across the country,” she said.

Underlining that the CTUs are against unilateral labour reforms, Kaur said: “We have given suggestions on labour codes. But during the discussion…trade unions’ demands were rejected. We went on strike on September 2, 2016. We also did 3-day ‘Mahapadav’ (agitation) from November 9-11 in 2017. But the government did not come for dialogue rather went ahead with unilateral labour reforms.”