New Delhi, September 07: Workers affiliated to central trade unions on Tuesday went on a day-long industrial strike across the country to protest against price rise, alleged violation of labour laws and disinvestment in PSUs.
Workers from sectors including coal, power, telecom, banks, insurance, defence, port and dock, road transport, petroleum and construction are participating in the countrywide strike under the banner of AITUC, CITU, HMS, AIUTUC, TUCC, AICCTU, UTUC and Congress-affiliated INTUC.
Banking operations affected partially
About 5 lakh members of the All-India Banks Employees’ Association (AIBEA) are supporting the nation-wide strike call given by various trade, claimed AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam.
Venkatachalam said the strike call is against banking sector reforms and mergers of public sector banks, among other issues.
However, State Bank of India officers and employees unions are not part of the strike.
The other union who are part of the strike is Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) which has a membership of about 1 lakh employees.
Banking services are affected in areas where these unions have stronghold including West Bengal and Kerala.
Many banks have already informed their customers in advance about strike, in which case normal functioning of its branches or offices may be affected.
As many as eight central trade unions, including CITU, have announced a nation-wide strike against major issues like price rise, the disinvestment policy of the government and violation of labour laws.
Over 170 flights cancelled
In wake of the strike called by central trade unions, Major Private Airliners on Tuesday cancelled over 170 flights from various cities mainly to West Bengal and Kerela.
Air operations to and from Kolkata were crippled as the private airliners like Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Jetlite, Indigo and Spicejet cancelled nearly 177 flights mainly to the two Left-ruled states.
Passengers were stranded at Kolkata airport as public transport was also hit by the day-long stir.
However, Air India sources told the reporters that flight operations by the airliner remained normal as it flew aircraft from Kolkata in the morning after the strike began at 6 AM.
The flights included an international one to Singapore and domestic flights to Mumbai, Port Blair, New Delhi, Silchar and Aizwal, the sources said.
They said Air India had cancelled its flight to Kathmandu.
Six flights on the Chennai-Kolkata route were affected, airport sources said in Chennai.
Officials at Delhi airport said there was no impact of the strike on any of its operations.
Among the airlines, Air India’s flights to Kolkata were as per schedule but Kingfisher airlines and Jet airways did not operate any flights to West Bengal.
As many as 29 King Fisher flights, that includes to and fro from Kolkata, and 70 of Jet and Jetlite combined did not operate, officials of the airline companies said.
Spicejet has cancelled 27 of its flights across India and Indigo did not operate 51 of its flights, DGCA officials said.
—Agencies