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The service sector will face a disruption across the country on Wednesday, July 9, as over 25 crores workers are likely to participate in the Bharat Bandh. The call for strike has been given by a joint platform of 10 central trade unions, backed by farmers’ groups. The strike has been called in response to the Union government’s “anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-national pro-corporate” reforms.
The trade unions which have called for the bandh include: All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC).
The unions are protesting the four new labour codes, which they allege would dilute worker protections, legalise longer working hours, weaken unions and make strikes and collective bargaining more difficult.
They argue that the BJP-led Union government has eroded worker protections, neglected farmers and deepened inequality.
Speaking about the protest, All India Trade Union Congress's Amarjeet Kaur said that more than 25 crore workers are expected to take part in the strike. Farmers and rural workers will also join the protest across the country, she said.
Harbhajan Singh Sidhu of Hind Mazdoor Sabha stated that banking, postal, coal mining, factories, state transport services will be affected due to the strike.
The forum said it had earlier submitted a 17-point charter of demands to Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya but received no concrete response.
Their demands include: withdrawal of the four labour codes, halting privatisation of PSUs and public services, minimum wage guarantee and universal social security, ban on contractualisation and push for permanent jobs, restoration of the Indian Labour Conference, not convened in over a decade, and higher investment in health, education and public welfare.
They also said that the government had not conducted the annual labour conference for the past decade and was instead pushing through four labour codes that would weaken collective bargaining, cripple union activity, and favour employers in the name of “ease of doing business”.
They claimed that the Union government has sidestepped all formal dialogue mechanisms and is passing critical reforms through backdoor channels.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government has warned against participating in the bandh. In a circular issued on Tuesday, July 8, the Chief Secretary Muruganandam warned government employees that if they disrupt the normal functioning of the government through demonstrations they would face action under section 20, 22 and 22-A of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants’ Conduct Rules 1973.