Central trade unions will observe black day on Sept. 23 to demand repeal of labour codes, says AITUC national general secretary

Central trade unions will observe black day on Sept. 23 to demand repeal of labour codes, says AITUC national general secretary

AITUC national general secretary Amarjeet Kaur on Tuesday said that the Union government has no right to sell Public Sector Enterprises (PSE s) to corporates at throwaway prices.

The AITUC leader participated in a rally organised in the city on Tuesday evening on the concluding day of the three-day AITUC general council meeting.

Later, addressing a public meeting at the Gandhi statue, near the GVMC, Ms. Kaur described the 1,200-day struggles by workers of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) against the privatisation plan of the Centre, as ‘historic’. The workers had prevented the ‘bidders’, who had participated in the bidding for VSP, to come out of the airport. She recalled that VSP was established after sacrifices by several people, and it was the pride of Andhra Pradesh.

She said that all the Central trade unions have decided to observe a ‘black day’ on September 23 to demand repeal of the four Labour Codes, approved by Parliament, without discussion, on September 22 and 23 in 2020. The 29 labour laws, which were brought out after several struggles by workers for years, were made into four labour codes by the BJP-led NDA government during the pandemic period in 2020, to favour the managements, she alleged.

The government had not even held talks with trade unions on the issue. It had even failed to issue copies of the bill to the members. A decision was also taken by the Central trade unions to observe an All India strike on November 26 against the farm laws and labour codes. Farmers and workers would participate in the protest. She alleged that the Union government was more interested in the welfare of the corporate groups.

The AITUC general secretary alleged the sexual harassment of women in the country has increased, and there is no safety for women at the workplace. The Prime Minister had not even called on the victims of violence in Manipur.

CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy underlined the need for intensifying agitations on the problems being faced by workers. He alleged that officials of the Factories Department were colluding with managements and neglecting the safety of workers. This was resulting in a spurt of industrial accidents.