Left party leaders on Wednesday condemned the arrest of unarmed general strike supporters.
CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy and CPI (M) State Secretariat member Ch. Narsinga Rao, in separate statements, said that it was unfortunate that the authorities started picking up key leaders from the early hours to fizzle out the general strike.
“The strike call was given by serving notices on respective managements well in advance hoping that the government will respond to our charter of demands. Unfortunately, both the BJP Government at the Centre and the TDP government in the State are hand-in-glove to weaken trade union activities by changing the labour laws,” CPI leader Obulesu said.
‘Anti-labour’ policies
Protests were organised by railway employees under the aegis of the East Coast Railway Shramik Congress and East Coast Railway Shramik Union as the part of the general strike.
ECoRSC president K. Satya Murthy demanded that the Centre withdraw its “anti-labour” policies. He said that railway employees would be forced to go on indefinite strike from November 23 if the Centre did not accept their demands. A mass dharna was organised by ECoRSU in which union president Ch. Gandhi deplored the policies of the Centre and called upon the cadre to be prepared for more struggles in future.
Dharna staged
Bank employees staged a dharna at Andhra Bank zonal office at Seethammadhara.
SBH Staff Union all-India president A. Koteswar Rao opposed the “anti-labour” policies of the Centre and the “hire and fire” policy being encouraged in various institutes.
Visakhapatnam District Bank Employees’ Coordination Committee secretary P.S. Malleswara Rao and members J. Sankar Raju, A. Yugandhar, and R.V. Ravi Kumar spoke.
