Pune: Speaking at a State body meet organised in the city on Saturday, the national secretary of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Ashok Chaudhary, declared that INTUC is ready to take on the current government’s ‘anti-labour’ policies on a national level. In Maharashtra, the protest rally will be held in August.
Choudhary said that their union is the only trade union serious about solving problems. “Unlike other unions, we are not complicit with the government and businessmen. We are dedicated to the issues of the workers in the country and will take to the streets to resist the anti-labour policies of the BJP administration,” he said, adding, “Maharashtra INTUC will organise a massive rally in August.”
“We are demanding that government rolls back its proposed decision to reduce the number of labour related laws from the current 44 to just 4. We are also demanding that workers be given an assured minimum wage of at least Rs 500 per day across industries and sectors,” Choudhary said, adding, “We also want the government to provide a pension of Rs 5,000 to the labourers working in the unorganised sector.”
Talking about the strategy ahead, Choudhary said, “We are focusing on connecting more and more workers through our organisation and go to the ground level and listen to their issues and raise a voice for them.” “The results of our efforts are already showing and in Maharashtra, we have made 30 lakh members while on the national level, we have crossed the 5 crore mark for membership recently,” he added.
On being asked how INTUC is different from the RSS affiliated Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS) and Communist Party of India (M) affiliated CITU and others, Choudhary said, “The BMS is nothing but the lapdog of the government and businessmen. Their loyalty lies towards the businesses and not workers’ interests”.
