CPI warns the government of another nationwide strike in the near future

Taken by the huge success of the two-day strike called by the trade unions and government employees on February 20 and 21 the Left leaders reiterated  their strong stand on the issue. On Friday, some member of the Left said in the Lok Sabha that if the government did not sit with the trade unions, they would go ahead with another nation wide strike in the near future.

The veteran CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta, who is also the leader of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) said 44 crore workers who were making the country's production system work, were not getting their due remuneration and were being neglected.

Dasgupta said the trade unions did not want to resort to strikes but were forced to do so by the government. Taking a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had made an appeal to the striking unions for talks, the CPI leader said the former offered talks to trade unions only through press. He also hinted that PM was only interested in speaking to the corporates.

Dasgupta said the PM had formed a panel of four ministers to discuss the issues with the trade union leaders but was annoyed by the fact that the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram was not present on the occasion. He said Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge had invited the union leaders for talks but he had nothing to offer to them.

The CPI leader warned that if the government did not engage with the unions, there would be another nationwide strike in the near future. CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav backed Dasgupta's views. 

Meanwhile, the Left parties congratulated the working class, employees and other sections for making the two-day general strike a big success. Left leaders said the Centre must address the demands raised by the general strike immediately or else, bigger actions would follow.