More than 18 crore workers from at least 10 central Left-affiliated trade unions, except BJP-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, participated in the 'Bharat bandh' on Friday. The trade unions have been joined by five bank unions who are protesting against government's new labour and investment policies.

Meanwhile, KNN India has caught up Tapan Sen, General Secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) who threatened to call more strikes and protest in other ways as well if government fails to meet their demands. “We are not going to relent,” he said.

He alleged that the Government has announced the minimum wage of Rs. 350 per day which will be implementable only for less than one per cent of the workforce.  “We are not fighting for the one per cent of the workforce but fighting for entire 47 crore workforces,” Sen said.  

CITU General Secretary said, “We demanded that you decide a benchmark below which no state government can go in fixing the minimum wages and that limit is Rs. 18000. But whatever the minister has told, it is only for less than one per cent of the workers in the central spheres. They are not telling this and they are cheating the workers by saying this.”

Speaking on the strike’s impact across the country, Sen said that already a massive strike is taking place covering the industrial sector, service sector and also from the unorganised sector in a very big way. In 2015 we had assessed around 15 crore workers to part in the strike but this time since morning, it is going to be a bigger strike this time. 

When asked about the economic impact of the strike on country, he said that whatever impact the strike is creating, 100 times more impact is being created by the corporates when they asharp  Rs. 8.5 Lakh Crore of the bank loans, when they don’t pay Rs. 5 lakh crore of direct taxes payable by them, when they extract many more concessions from these ministers of Modi Government in different ways.

“That amount is 100 times more than the amount that may be affected by one day strike of the workers. It is these workers who will make up these losses within one month period with different industries,” he said.

Commenting on the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) who is not taking part in the strike, CITU General Secretary said that BMS leaders have not taken part in this strike owing to their political compulsion but BMS workers joined the strike in a big way and if they say they are not part of RSS then they are telling a lie. 

“They (Government) are not ready to support each and every point and our job is to make them agreed on each and every point. This is our fight,” he added. (KNN/ AR)