People's Democracy

AT the call of all the central trade unions in the country except the national leadership of INTUC, around 1.5 crore workers belonging to the public sector, banking and insurance, port and dock, coal and other sectors struck work on April 16, in what is being termed as one of the biggest united expression of total opposition to the anti-working class and anti-national policies of the NDA government.

The strike turned into a virtual bandh in many parts of the country including West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. It evoked complete response in many other states with the participation of workers of all affiliations in the strike.

Around 20 lakh workers of all the central public sector undertakings participated in the strike action. They were joined by the nearly 50 lakh state government employees all over the country who held a day long dharna at the call of the All India State Government Employees Federation (AISGEF) affecting the administration considerably. More than 7 lakh Anganwadi workers in 18 states also joined the strike action.

In West Bengal all the trade unions called for general strike on the day and it was converted into a total bandh involving the private sector industrial workers as well, completely paralyzing normal life. The whole of Tripura observed a bandh with the workers of state and central governments, central and state PSUs, of both organised and unorganized sector joining the strike enmasse. Almost similar paralyzing bandh-like situation was reported from Andhra Pradesh where 90 per cent private sector industries and 70 per cent of the public transport system got paralysed due to the strike by the concerned workers along with the workers of central and state PSUs.

In Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand private sector workers also joined the strike action in a big way along with the public sector workers creating a bandh like situation. In Punjab the strike in all the major PSUs was complete and the employees of the Punjab state electricity board observed total strike. All the unions in Punjab state transport and roadways struck work for two hours.

In Kerala, the strike in the PSUs was total and numerous rallies were organised all over the state by the workers of all sections.

The opposition of the INTUC leadership to the strike action could not keep away most of the industry-level unions of INTUC from the strike. The INTUC federation in Port & Dock sector joined the strike along with others and all the ports of the country reported participation of over 80 per cent workers in the strike. Particularly in JNPT port in Maharashtra, Tutikorin port in Tamilnadu, Cochin port in Kerala the strike was total. In the banks, insurance and financial sectors all over the country the strike was almost complete.

According to CITU, in the coal mines, all over the country under ECL, BCCL, WCL, NCL, NECL, SECL, Mahanadi Coal fields and Singareni covering AP, West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Orissa, UP, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh more than 95 per cent workers joined the strike. In the steel industry, strike was a full success in the integrated steel plants in Durgapur, Burmpur, and Salem, Steel Plants in Bokaro and Rourkela and Visakhapatnam also reported 60 per cent strike and the production was affected in a big way. The workers of the iron ore mines all over the country also joined the strike enmasse.

In the oil sector companies like IOC, BPCL, HPCL, ONGC, IPCL etc, overwhelming majority of the employees were on strike.

The public sector city of Bangalore and Hyderabad, having high concentration of public sector units reported complete strike in all the PSUs like, BEL, BHEL, ITI, HAL, HMT, BEML, all the units of KGF, ECIL, MIDHANI etc and the striking workers held massive rallies and procession in the cities denouncing the policies of the government. In Bangalore around 10000 public sector workers held a rally in the city. In Visakhapatnam, the Shipyard, BHPV and other PSUs were affected due to the massive strike action. The BHEL units at Trichy, Bangalore, Jhansi, Ranipet and R&D, Hyderabad reported almost complete strike by the workers whereas in other units the strike was partial. Most of the fertiliser plants in the country under NFL, HFC,FCI etc and all the units of MMTC throughout the country also reported almost paralyzing situation due to the strike.

Workers of the recently corporatised telecom sector in MTNL and BSNL also took active part in the strike throughout the country.

In Delhi a dharna was organised on the Parliament Street in solidarity of the striking workers. It was addressed by leaders of various central trade unions participating in the strike. At the SCOPE complex in Delhi, where most of the PSUs are situated, a massive rally of striking workers was held.

In a press statement, the CITU noted that workers from many new areas who could not be brought to strike action earlier and also those areas which have been taken up for immediate privatisation joined the strike enmasse against the policy of sell-out of the nation.

According to reports received by the All India Reserve Bank Employees Association the strike in RBI on April 16, 2002 in all centres including its central office at Mumbai has been total and unprecedented. Besides Mumbai, in all the metro centres of the bank viz. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Patna, Pune, and Thiruvananthapuram, the clearing operations stopped totally and there was absolutely no transactions.

The CITU while congratulating the working class of the country and the PSU workers in particular for the magnificent strike and solidarity actions, called upon them to prepare for a bigger countrywide united action to reverse the anti-national policies of the Vajpayee government.