All India General Strikes in India  – 10

General Strike on 14th December 2006

A National Convention of Workers was held on 25th July 2006 at Mavlankar  Hall, V.P.House premises as per the call by the seven central trade unions, viz. AICCTU, AITUC, CITU, HMS, TUCC, UTUC-LS and UTUC as also the all India Federations and associations of employees and workers in banks, central and state government offices and departments, insurance, railways, defence, postal, telecom, petroleum and other sectors as also of several independent unions. An eleven member presidium comprising leaders of the central and other trade unions conducted the proceedings. Comrades M.K.Pandhe (CITU), Gurudas Dasgupta (AITUC), Thampan Thomas (HMS), Swapan Mukherjee (AICCTU), S.P.Tiwari (TUCC), Krishna Chakraborty (UTUC-LS), Abani Roy(UTUC), V.A.N.Namboodiri (BSNLEU) S.K.Vyas (Confederation) Sukomal Sen (AISGEF) and other leaders addressed.

A draft declaration presented in the convention which dealt elaborately with the challenges faced by the toiling masses , the growing attacks from the employers and the indifference and anti-labour attitude of the UPA government at the centre etc was discussed and adopted with a 16 point Charter of Demands for campaign and struggle. The following action programme was unanimously adopted:

16 August – 15 September 2006: Holding of Conventions at State and Sectoral levels

20 September 2006: National Day for Mobilisation for General Strike (holding demonstrations, rallies etc.)

29 November 2006: Strike Notice to be served by all unions in their respective establishments

14th December 2006 : All India General Strike.

Prime Minister interacts with Trade Unions

This time, after the TU Convention, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh held a meeting with the central trade unions on 19 August 2006 to hear their view points. All the demands were well explained by the central leaders.

The Prime Minister heard the unions patiently. A  few vague asssurances with regard to payment of back wages , enquring whether any fradulent calculation is there in the cost of living index, creating more jobs etc. were given. The unions urged the PM once again to take expeditious decisions on the demands presented.

As per the call of the All India Convention all the agitational programmes were organised effectively with massive participation.

The One Day General Strike called for by the Central Trade Unions on 14 December 2006 was a great success with participation of crores of workers. It was converted in to a complete Bandh in Kerala, W.Bengal and Tripura.