NEW DELHI, Sept 29: Flights were cancelled and state-run banks shut across India on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of people stayed away from work to protest economic reforms.
Trading volumes on the country’s currency and bond markets fell to a trickle as bank workers and airport staff heeded the strike call by the ruling coalition’s communist allies.
In Kolkata, the capital of communist-ruled West Bengal state, public transport was brought to a standstill and factories, offices and schools remained shut.
In Mumbai, about a thousand bank workers carrying union placards marched from branch to branch shouting ‘Down with bank mergers!’ and ‘Down with the government!’
The strike had been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions, which represents nearly 95 per cent of more than 1.3 million bank and insurance workers.
“The strike has been successful across the country,” said Kamal Bhattacharya, vice president of All India Bank Employees Association. “We are against merger of public sector banks, against disinvestment in state-run banks and allowing foreigners picking up stakes in old private sector banks.”
India has about 300 banks led by the State Bank and the Congress party-led government wants some of the public sector ones to merge and become more competitive, but the unions say fewer bigger banks would not necessarily lead to strength.
Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the strike was inconvenient, but its impact on the economy was marginal.
An industry lobby group, the All India Association of Industries, said the loss from disruption of banking and aviation services was estimated at more than $45.5 million.
MUSCLE-FLEXING: The ruling coalition, which swept to power unexpectedly last year, relies on union-backed communist parties for support, but the far left is against greater foreign control of areas like banking.
Last month, the coalition abandoned plans to sell stakes in state-run firms to strategic investors due to pressure from the left, which fears massive job losses among its core voters.
Analysts said Thursday’s strike was a muscle-flexing exercise by the communist leaders of the trade unions.
“The communists to a great extent have come in the way of reforms and they will continue to do so,” said Saumitra Chaudhuri, economic adviser with domestic rating agency ICRA.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the strike was a strong message from the working class to the government to resist privatization.
“The strike serves as a warning to the government not to embark upon changes in labour laws without first holding negotiations with trade unions,” a party statement said.
The government, which runs India’s airports, said the strike had minimal impact and the Airports Authority said international flights operations were normal.
But unions said the strike crippled services in most of the 78 airports with facilities for commercial flights. Airlines like Jet Airways and state-run Indian Airlines rescheduled and restricted internal flights.
Unions are protesting government plans to set up two joint ventures to operate Mumbai and New Delhi airports and offering stakes to foreign firms. Authorities have received 11 bids.
Aviation Minister Praful Patel said the government would talk to employees and there would be no job losses due to privatization.
“There will be no loss of jobs ... in fact, new jobs will be created. There will be new opportunities for them and the airports will get additional revenues,” Mr Patel told reporters. —Reuters
