Senior Union Ministers on Saturday held extensive talks after trade unions said no to the Government’s request to call off their proposed nationwide general strike on September 2. labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya had urged the central trade unions (CTUs) on Friday to reconsider their decision to go on strike.
However, trade unions on Saturday rejected the request saying that the Government has failed to address their 12-point charter of demands. Replying to Dattaterya’s letter, AITUC and CITU said the status report on the demands is ‘almost the same as that you circulated exactly one year ago, in the joint meeting with the CTUs held on August 26-27, on the eve of the general strike in 2015’. The unions attacked the Government saying it is ‘equally unfortunate’ that no concrete measures have been spelt on the issue of price control of essential commodities, statutorily fixing the minimum wage as per norms and social security.
Meanwhile, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Dattatreya on Saturday held extensive consultations and meetings with senior labour Ministry officials over the proposed countrywide strike, sources said.
Both Goyal and Dattatreya are part of the five-member ministers’ panel on labour issues, which is chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, to talk to the CTUs over the 12-point charter of demands. The panel has recently held two-rounds of discussions with RSS-affiliate Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) on August 16 and August 24, which has also been ‘severely criticised’ by other unions for holding such ‘exclusive discussions’.