Countrywide General Strike on Sept 2, 2016

Countrywide General Strike on Sept 2, 2016

THE Joint National Convention of Central Trade Unions and Industrial Federations held in Mavalankar Hall in Delhi on  March 30, 2016 called upon the working class of the country to observe a country wide general strike on September 2, 2016 against the anti-people, anti-national and anti-worker policies of the NDA government.

Hundreds of workers from all over the country employed in the organised and unorganised sectors, public and private sectors – from public sector undertakings, banks, insurance, defence, state and central government departments, railways, telecom, port and dock, road transport, electricity, construction, different schemes of the government of India, home based workers, domestic workers and from many other sectors participated in the Convention.

The Convention strongly criticised the NDA government for its total apathy towards the genuine demands that were being continuously raised by the united trade union movement through their 12 point charter of demands. The government’s practice of bypassing the parliament and implement pro-management measures through executive orders was seriously condemned by the Convention. It strongly criticised the government for totally ignoring the consensus recommendations of the Indian Labour Conference related to minimum wages, contract workers and scheme workers.

The Convention unanimously adopted resolutions condemning the Haryana government which has introduced Rajasthan type amendments to the labour laws, against the brutal lathi charge on the Honda workers in Rajasthan, against the labour law violations by the MNCs and in solidarity with the Pricol workers in Tamil Nadu and Maruti workers in Haryana.

The Convention called upon the working class to observe country wide general strike on September 2, 2016 and start massive joint preparations at once to ensure that the participation of workers in the strike surpass even that in the general strike last year on the same day. It called upon the working class to take the unity attained at the national level to the grass root and work place level and also extend the unity to all other toiling sections of the society like the peasants, agricultural workers etc.

The Convention decided to take up the following programmes in preparation for the strike:

1. Joint conventions at the state, district and industry level during June–July 2016. The campaign to involve peasants, agricultural workers and all sections of toiling people in general 
2. Day long Satyagraha at the state capitals and industrial centres on August 9, on the Quit India Day
3. In addition innovative joint actions as part of the campaign as decided at the state level

The Convention was presided by Amit Yadav (INTUC), Amarjeet Kaur (AITUC) Raja Sreedhar (HMS), A K Padmanabhan(CITU), Satyavan Singh (AIUTUC), Sanjana  (SEWA), Santosh Ray (AICCTU), Shatrujeet Singh (UTUC) and Mohan Kumar (LPF). G Sanjeeva Reddy from INTUC, Gurudas Dasgupta from AITUC, Harbhajan Singh Siddu from HMS, Tapan Sen from CITU, Sankar Saha from AIUTUC, Lata Yadav from SEWA, Santosh Rai from AICCTU, Abani Roy from UTUC and Subbaraman from LPF addressed the Convention. BMS which was party to the decision for the National Convention on March 30, 2016, did not participate.

NATIONAL CONVENTION OF WORKERS

NEW DELHI, MARCH 30, 2016

DECLARATION