‘Some political parties hijacked the strike’: Trade union on Bihar bandh over SIR

Some political parties hijacked the strike called by trade unions by announcing a ‘bandh’ over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, said a trade union functionary. The functionary said the parties did not speak a word about them.

Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) president Harbhajan Singh Sidhu said, "Some political parties hijacked our programme. They announced a bandh in Bihar, but did not say a word about us. If they had to do a 'Bihar bandh', they could have done it a few days later. The INDIA bloc has not spoken a word about us. Political parties should not have hijacked our strike, and if they were doing it, it should have been done for our demands.”

He said the INDIA bloc did not say a single word about the Labour Codes and other issues affecting the workers even as they fought against the BJP-led ruling party’s policies.

While the general strike was called by the trade unions over the new Labour Codes and other issues, the Bihar bandh was called by opposition parties against the ongoing SIR, which aims to include eligible voters in the voter lists and remove the ineligible ones. The process would entail door-to-door surveys to verify voter details by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and the submission of one of 11 documents for verification, like birth certificates and identity cards. Aadhaar card is not among the list.

All India Trade Union Congress general secretary Amarjeet Kaur said 25 crore people participated in the ‘rasta roko’ and ‘rail roko’ programmes across the country. There were bandh-like situations in Puducherry, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha and Karnataka.

Kaur said there was a very large mobilisation in rural India by informal-sector workers. "The trade unions are very clear. Whether it is a state government or the Union government, our labour laws -- that we won after a 150-year struggle from the British period to independent India -- we will not tolerate any attempt at taking away those rights," Kaur said.

Trade unions across various sectors observed a general strike on Wednesday to protest against the new Labour Codes and privatisation. The strike aimed to press for demands including a minimum wage of Rs 26,000 and the restoration of the old pension scheme. The unions involved included those in coal, NMDC Ltd, non-coal minerals such as copper, bauxite, aluminium, and gold mines, as well as steel, banks, LIC, GIC, petroleum, electricity, postal services, grameen dak sevaks, telecom, tea plantations, jute mills, public transport, and various private sector transport services. State government employees from different sectors also participated.

Defence sector employees held protest gate meetings for an hour in support of the strike before resuming work. Railway unions mobilised and took part in solidarity actions. Unions representing construction workers, beedi workers, anganwadi and ASHA workers, mid-day meal staff, domestic workers, hawkers, vendors, home-based piece-rate workers, and rickshaw, autorickshaw, and taxi drivers participated in "rasta roko" and "rail roko" protests at several locations.