General Secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions(CITU), Tapan Sen explained the demands of workers against the “pro corporate reforms”. The secretary defended “Bharat Bandh” claiming the reforms would be disastrous for not just the workers, but also for the GDP of the country. Ten Trade Unions in the country called “Bharat Bandh” which has disrupted public transportations in many parts of the country.
00:00The major issues of the thing is not merely workers' demand, but the demand related to the dangerous situation that is emerging on the national economy, which is directly linked with the lives and livelihoods of the workers and their trade unions.
00:19So it is there where the government of India is going towards a destructive path so far as economic policy is concerned and which is resulting on, despite all demagogues by the Prime Minister and others, about Vikasit Bharat, India is going to be the fourth country nationally, all these bullshits,
00:47which is being again out of proportion propagated in your corporate media. In the face of it that the investment is not growing, rather declining. GDP growth is declining.
01:07Although all these things are happening and the dangerous thing is that all taken together, the capacity, indigenous capacity of the national economy is taking a big hit because of this destructive policy.
01:27And now a new element has come now, the global trade deal that is going on, another dangerous aspect which is going to have a disastrous effect if they surrender on the U.S. pressure, our agriculture and all small industries.
01:46That is going to be the eventuality and it will have its impact naturally on the workers, their employment, all these things. So against this policy regime, these are the main focus.
02:01Because all our demands, all our demands, all our demands, if you scan, 17 point demand are related to this, against privatization, against outsourcing, against precarization of the employment, which is seriously disturbing, affecting the consumption level.
02:18Our consumption level, if it is affected, it is quite natural that new capacity generation in the industry will not take place. And that is getting reflected in the decline in the growth rate of GDP consistently.
02:32So given all the situation, our 17 point demand, and that is why you are telling that we are not fighting only for the workers demand, but also to save the nation and save the people.
02:45And focus point is on labor court, which they have passed on 20th, which is aimed at completely curving the trade union right and the workers' right at workplace. Not only trade union right, my right to have eight hours working, women's right to have deep consent on night work.
03:08See, I am telling you certain. Then in certain laws, they have increased the threshold limit for coverage. So by increasing threshold limit, more than 40% of the workers are going out of the coverage.
