The 11 Central trade unions, which successfully organised all-India strikes on February 20 and 21 this year on a charter of demands, have written a joint letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to hold discussions with them “as the situation after the strikes has escalated due to job loss and sky high prices of food articles.”
Dr. Singh should take the initiative to have a dialogue with them before they chalk out the next programme of action, the trade unions said in the letter, which was signed by G. Sanjeeva Reddy (Indian National Trade Union Congress), Gurudas Das Gupta (All India Trade Union Congress), Tapan Sen (Centre of Indian Trade Unions), B.N. Roy (Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh), Harbhajan Singh (Hind Mazdoor Sabha) and others.
“Tackle price rise”
Their other demands include control of inflation, price rise, adequate social security for the unorganised sector workers and fixation of minimum wage at Rs.10,000 per month.
