The nation-wide strike called by central trade unions had little impact on the normal life and trade in the city, even as activists of various trade unions took out a procession and dispersed after submitting a memorandum in support of their 12-point demands to the Prime Minister through the deputy commissioner’s office on Friday.
The bus services operated normally, but a few schedules were temporarily suspended owing to inadequate number of passengers on certain routes. The business establishments opened as usual. However, a few schools had unofficially declared leave for pre-primary sections. The attendance in banks and insurance company offices, and government offices was also thin during the day.
Activists of various trade unions led by Joint Committee of Trade Unions took out a procession from Dharamveer Sambhaji Chowk. They shouted slogans demanding the government to fix minimum monthly wages at Rs.18,000 and monthly pension of at least Rs.3000, abolition of highly exploitative contract system, higher bonus, amendment to labour laws to make it more progressive to protect the genuine interests of the workers and implementation of universal public distribution system.
They strongly opposed foreign investments in core sectors of Railways, Insurance and Defence.
Those who participated in the strike included anganwadi workers, besides members of CITU, AITUC, TUCI and bank employees unions. The strike was led by senior trade union leaders G.V. Kulkarni, Nagesh Sateri, Anil Ajgaonkar,C.S. Bijnal, V.S. Jamnal, G.M. Jainekhan, Francis Fernandes and Maruti Dhagennavar.
Grameen Cooolie Karmikara Sanghatane activists led by Dilip and Ashok Herekar also staged a separate protest demanding measures to check price rise and increase in number of days of work to at least 200 days in a year under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
