Spontaneous response to the nationwide strike in the district

Aurangabad, Nov 26:

The nationwide strike on Thursday called against the new labor laws, privatization of public sector banks and various pending demands of state government employees received spontaneous response from state government employees central union, semi-government employees, industrial workers and bank employees. Thousands of workers in the district had joined the strike.

All government employees in district and tehsil offices, Zilla Parishad, BSNL, Income Tax, SGST department, all the Class IV employees and all the trade unions in the city participated in the strike. The strike was supported by more than 250 organizations. The members demanded implementation of the old pension scheme of 1982, repeal the privatization-contracting policy and regularize the services of the current part-time, contract workers, repeal the oppressive policy of voluntary retirement, repeal the new labor laws and pay all allowances to central employees. The other demands including immediate filling of vacancies in all cadres and speed up appointments on compassionate basis. The worker unions formed a human chain protest on behalf of the joint action committee in Waluj. Various unions of bank employees staged protests and formed a human chain in Cidco. Porters and laborers made human chain at Vasantrao Naik Chowk, Cidco. All the workers had come together under the banner of Marathwada Labor Union, Maharashtra Rajya Hamal Mapadi Mahamandal and Swarajya Abhiyan.

Participation of 16,000 employees

About 16,000 office bearers, members and employees of various government departments in the district participated in the strike, said Devidas Jarare, state vice-president of the state government employees central union.

Statement to the collector

In all, 698 employees of the collector office participated in the strike on Thursday. The collector office has a total of 863 employees from Group A to Group D and 600 employees are from group C. Only 158 employees were present in the office. Most of the revenue employees, except those from the election and disaster management departments, also went on strike. As a result, there was a lull in the collector office. Statement of various demands were given to the district collector by the state government employees central union. The statement has the signatures of union president Arvind Dhongade, general secretary Sachin Salve, Sanjay Pawar, Vijay Shahane, Satish Pendse and others. The employees came together in front of the collector office and shouted slogans. Anil Suryavanshi of Talathi association and Devidas Jarare, vice president of state association were also present on the occasion.