Labour Laws: Trade union leaders to sit on hunger strike at Rajghat on May 22

Leaders of ten central trade unions will sit on a day-long hunger strike at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat on May 22 as part of its nationwide protest against the "anti-worker" move to suspend labour laws in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the joint platform of the ten central trade unions -- INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, UTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, UTUC -- on May 14. The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has called a separate protest on May 20.

At Rajghat, the national leaders of trade unions will sit on hunger strike while simultaneous protest actions will be jointly organised in all states. The demands include immediate relief to stranded workers for safe reaching to their homes, food to be made available to all, universal coverage of ration distribution, ensure wages to all of the lockdown period, cash transfer to all unorganized labour force, withdraw DA freeze to central government employees and pensioners among others.

The national leadership has also instructed its state units to intensify state-wise and sector-wise issue-based ongoing protests. They also decided to further strengthen the united struggle to halt the "retrograde policies of trampling the hard-won labour rights" through the nationwide strike in the days to come.

The central trade unions have already decided to send a joint representation to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the suspension of labour laws that resulted in violation of international commitments on labour standards and human rights.

"Taking shelter under the umbrella of COVID-19 pandemic, every day the government is taking one or other decisions to attack the working class and common people of the country who are already in deep distress and miseries in the midst of lockdown in the country," the trade unions said.

The government's announcement on May 14 "did nothing for relieving the common people and workers from the miseries they are suffering except making tall claims and statements far away from the truth, displaying cruel insensitivity to the miseries and distress" of the majority of the populace, they said.

"The government at the Centre, in a most dubious manner, taking advantage of prolonged lockdown period, has been targeting the rights of the workers and the trade unions towards abrogation of labour rights. It has taken the strategy of letting loose their pliant state governments to take such anti-worker and anti-people autocratic measures and many other state governments are being made to follow the same path to the detriment of the rights and livelihood of workers," the trade unions alleged.

They said BJP-ruled UP, MP and Gujarat suspended labour laws and it came after eight state government, including Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Bihar and Punjab have enhanced the daily working hours from eight hours to 12 hours through an executive order in violation of the Factories Act.

“All this means that the workers are to be used as bonded labour without any rights for sheer exploitation in the interest of capital without any guarantee of wages, safety and healthcare, social security and above all human dignity only to benefit those who maximize their profits on the blood and sweat of workers. This is against the basic tenets of human rights," they added.