Rajasthan: 2-day nationwide strike affects postal dept service

The services of the postal department and some banks were partially hit on the second day of the two-day nationwide strike called by 10 central trade unions. Notably, the 10 Central Trade Unions (CTUs), which have given a call for the two-day Bharat Bandh are protesting the government’s snub of their 12-point charter of demands seeking minimum wage of Rs18,000, social security for all workers and issue related to price rise. During the two-day strike, more than 25000 banking employees across the state remained on strike and many banking operations were affected. On the first day, the employees got together at LIC building near Ambedkar Circle and raised slogans against the government.

Even though it doesn’t affect the common people much, however, the RBI employees also observed strike and the cash related services were affected by the people.

A few days back itself, in the last week of December, PSU banks had remained closed due to strike to oppose the merger of three banks. The strike had that time also affected the consumers. However, during this two-day strike, not much effect was seen in Jaipur and other parts of the state.  However, the postal department employees strike somewhat affected the smaller towns in the state. Not much impact of this two-day strike was seen in NWR where the work went on as usual. The unions have alleged that the government has failed to create jobs and grossly ignored unions’ 12-point charter of demands.

They also said that the Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on labour issues has not called unions for any discussion since September 2, 2015, strike which left them with no other option but to go on another strike. They are also opposed to the proposed amendments in Trade Union Act, 1926, saying those are irrational and extremely damaging to the independent functioning of unions.