Three federations of the Trade Unions of Defence Civil Employees will observe a three-day strike from Wednesday protesting against the Union government’s policy decision to hand over defence production to the private sector.
The federations represent four lakh defence civilian employees working in the 41 ordnance factories, 52 DRDO laboratories, and 53 quality assurance establishments.
M.K. Ravindran Pillai, vice-president of the All-India Defence Employees’ Federation, on Tuesday condemned Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s decision of approving withdrawal of 275 products being manufactured in the ordnance factories by classifying those products as ‘non-core’. This decision is against the commitment given by earlier Defence Ministers, including A.K. Antony, to the federation, he said. Mr. Pillai said this went against the earlier assurance that work which can be done by the ordnance factories will be privatised and for manufacturing any new defence products, priority would be given to ordnance factories.
In Bengaluru, the protest will be held at the DRDO office, C.V. Raman Nagar, CQAL, near Doordarshan Kendra, Bengaluru, and at 515 Army Base Workshop, Ulsoor.
