The Hindu : Banks, PSUs hit by strike

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 17, 2002

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Banks, PSUs hit by strike

By Our Special Correspondent

Striking bank employees outside the Reserve Bank of India headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena

NEW DELHI APRIL 16. The biggest-ever industrial action to protest privatisation and the Central Government's "anti-labour policies" virtually brought the economy to a standstill today and caused a loss of Rs.100 crores. However, the one-day countrywide strike — involving public sector units and insurance and banking — was more or less peaceful. The coal and port sectors too were badly hit.

As the workers responding to the call given by all the major central trade unions — including the Sangh Parivar's Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh — joined the strike in a massive display of resentment, the public and private sector banks, including the Reserve Bank, wore a deserted look as did the insurance companies and the PSUs, and many State-Government run corporate entities.

Six States — the Left's pockets of influence — including West Bengal, Tripura, Goa and Manipur participated in the strike, bringing the official machinery to a grinding halt. The response in these States was massive as demonstrations, rallies and "dharnas" were held on a large scale, focussing on the "failure of the Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha."

Hailing the strike as a great success, the AITUC general secretary, Gurudas Dasgupta, and several central trade union leaders claimed at a press conference that over ten million workers had displayed their militant mood by observing a complete strike. In a stray incident here, the striking employees were allegedly assaulted by "goons" of the multinational, Pepsico. Workers were subjected to a lathicharge and there were also reports of harassment and arrest of striking workers.

Attacking Mr. Sinha for "all the ills" of the economy, Mr. Dasgupta and other union leaders demanded his removal as a precondition to the "reversal of the anti-labour and other policies dictated by the multi-nationals and superpowers, adversely affecting the economy and the working class."

Significantly, the Government conceded that work in the banking sector was severely affected. Ninety per cent of the employees and officers in the RBI participated in the strike. About 80 per cent of the workers struck work in the Mumbai Port Trust and the JMPT. The Government virtually accepted that the strike was successful in the PSUs covering almost all sectors including oil, power, electronics and coal.

The INTUC did not associate itself with the strike. And its president, G. Sanjeeva Reddy, "congratulated" his union members for not participating in the strike.

The Confederation of Indian Industry described the strike as "unfortunate." Its president, Sanjeev Goenka, said that "it is the small businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals who bear the brunt of the disruption of essential services caused by the nationwide strike. In addition to the estimated losses of Rs. 100 crores in transactions for the banking sector, the strike had its impact on air and surface transportation.''

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