Finance minister Arun Jaitley will meet leaders of the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) on Tuesday as it remained ambivalent on lending support to 10 other central trade unions (CTUs) for the proposed nationwide strike on September 2.

The BMS, in no uncertain terms, has said it “strongly condemns” the Centre’s “attitude of neglect” towards labour, but has not been forthcoming on whether it would take part in the strike called by CTUs.

In its three-day Kendriya Karya Samithi (KKS) meeting which ended on Sunday, BMS has decided to take “strong
action, including strike against the Central government’s anti-labour actions”; but later thought of withholding its decision till the outcome of the meeting with the finance minister.

CTUs have given the strike call protesting against the government’s alleged anti-labour and anti-people moves. They want their 12-point charter of demands, including stopping of foreign direct investment (FDI) in different sectors, disinvestment of the government’s stake in PSUs, price rise and implementation of labour reforms without proper tripartite consultation, etc, to be met.

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However, later talking to FE, BMS general secretary Brijesh Upadhyay that its working committee does not hope for a positive outcome of the meeting, given the past experiences.

Incidentally, BMS, now the country’s largest CTU, had last year withdrawn from the nationwide strike call following assurances from the government on redressing their grievances in six months.
BMS is now hugely critical of the government though. In the resolution of its just-concluded KKS, it said, “BMS strongly condemns the callous delay and neglecting attitude of the Central government in not fulfilling the signed promises it made on the charter of demands raised by the joint forum of CTUs”.

“It appears that the government is succumbing to the pressure of employers by not implementing the proposed wages for contract labour,” it added.

However. some belonging to other trade unions said BMS’ proposed meeting with Jaitley is just a hogwash and “BMS is not likely to join the strike”, as it would be difficult for their affiliated people to come out and protest against the government.

Meanwhile, CITU president A K Padmanabhan and AITUC national secretary D L Sachdeva said they would go ahead with the strike call even if BMS does not join in and claimed to have a heightened success as workers across sectors are in a dire stress now. “It would be better if BMS joins in,” Sachdeva said.