'War on working people': Trade unions hit out at labour codes, urges workers to 'rise in rage'

New Delhi: Ten central trade unions affiliated to the Opposition on Friday, November 21, described the implementation of the four labour codes as a "genocidal attack" and "war on the working masses", as it called workers to "rise in rage" in joint action with farmers on November 26 to demand its scrapping.

However, RSS-affiliated BMS hailed the Modi government for implementing the long-awaited Labour Codes -- the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 -- aimed at "ensuring dignity, protection and progressive welfare" for India's workforce.

The ten Opposition trade unions -- INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC, in a joint statement "strongly condemned" the "blatantly unilateral" implementation of "anti-worker, pro-employer" labour codes and claimed that it was the union government's "deceptive fraud" committed against the working people.

It alleged that the notifications amidst "deepening unemployment crisis, rising inflation" is "nothing short of declaration of war on the working masses" and that the government is in "cahoots with its capitalist cronies" is attempting to take the country "back to the exploitative era of master-servant relationship". 

"In-spite of the stiff resistance, the ruling regime...dizzied with the victory in Bihar elections has felt super empowered to make the four labour codes effective from today," it said adding that its latest requests on November 13 and 20 on labour codes and other issues were ignored.

The unions called the working people to “rise in rage in the joint action of combative resistance and defiance” on November 26 along with the farmers led by Samyukta Kisan Morcha against the implementation of labour codes in each and every work place, urging for the scrapping of labour codes and withdrawal of draft Shram Shakti Niti 2025.

The trade unions asked workers to wear black badges at the work places "to demonstrate defiance" and from Monday onwards, gate meetings and street corner meetings among others should be held in war-footing to "expose the designs" of the government "trying to enslave the whole section of the wealth producers to the profit mongers". 

The trade unions said the "arbitrary and undemocratic" notification "defies all democratic ethos" and has "wrecked the character of welfare state of India to rubbles", as it recalled the protests, including General Strikes, against it while emphasising that the joint platform has been resisting the implementation of these "draconian" labour codes since the day they were enacted repealing existing 29 central labour legislations.  

"The CTUs in one voice term the codes as genocidal attacks on the lives and livelihoods of workers seeking to impose virtual slavery and snatching away every right and entitlements of the workers. The codes, if implemented, will extinguish the hopes, faith and aspirations of the entire generations to come," it said.