General Strike in Greece on Friday January 12, 2018

PAME, the central union of Greece has called upon the entire workers to organise a strike on 12th January 2018 against the anti-workers decisions of the government, cutting the wages etc. The Circular issued by PAME is given below: AIBDPA support and extend solidarity to the strike.

“PAME Calls the Unions, the National Federations, the Regional Trade Union Centers to join the Strike
action all over Greece against the new antiworkers’ bill forwarded by the Government on Friday January
12.
Against this new attack PAME has called for General Strike on Friday, January 12. Dozens of
National Workers’ Federations, Regional Trade Union Centers and Trade Unions have already
responded to the call.
The GSEE-ADEDY (members of ETUC in Greece) and their unions have refused to call for Strike, so
as to give time to the Government to abolish workers’ basic rights.
The new bill includes a series of antiworkers’ measures (abolition of any protection of
workers’ homes so as to be auctioned by the banks, new taxes, etc) as well as imposition of new
laws on trade union action and organization aiming to ban our right to go on strike.
The class trade unions are organizing a series of actions to strengthen workers’ response to the new
attack and prepare massive participation to the strike under the Slogan “Hands off! From our Right to Go
On Strike”
On Tuesday January 9 the class unions of Athens held a militant demonstration and protest to
the Ministry of Labour. When the Minister of Labor refused to meet with delegation of the class unions
the workers entered the Ministry with force, hanged banners to the building, naming it “Ministry of
Employers-European Union and IMF” and not of the labor. The protest forced the Minister to meet with
delegation of the Unions, who demanded the cancelation of the bill that bans workers’ right to go on
strike. The Minister refused to withdraw the bill and slandered the class unions.”

Aadhaar database can be misused and abused – Edward Snowden

 American whistle-blower Edward Snowden has confirmed the fact that  the Aadhaar database conceived and introduced by the Indian government can  be misused and abused.
Simply denial by the UIDAI that the data are safe and it is not breached is nothing short of misleading the people.
Government should tell the truth to the people.

World Working Women Congress at Pananma on 8-10 March 2018

The World Working Women Congress under the auspices of the WFTU will be held at Pananma on 8th to 10th March 2018. Delegates from more than 40 countries are expected to participate and discuss about the various issues of the working women all over the world. We fully welcome the decision. Working Women from India are also expected to participate.

BSNL Workers on Struggle Path on wage revision etc. – Full support and solidarity by AIBDPA

The All Unions and Associations of BSNL in its meeting held on 08-01-2018 has decided to go on programme of action on the major issue of the workers. The demands and the programmes are given below:

Struggle programme:

 

  1. Whole day satyagraha for 5 days from 30.01.2018. The starting of the satyagraha will be marked by the paying of ‘shradhanjali’ at Gandhi Samadi at New Delhi on 30.01.2018, by the leaders of the “The All Unions and Associations of BSNL”.
  2. ‘Indefinite Work According to Rule’ from 30.01.2018.
  3. Massive “March to Sanchar Bhawan” on 28.02.2018.
  4. Leaders of “The All Unions and Associations of BSNL” will take all out efforts to meet Shri Manoj Sinha, Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications, the Secretary DoT and CMD BSNL, within a week’s time.
  5. The meeting entrusted to Com. G.L. Jogi, Leader, SNEA, and to Com. Prahlad Rai, GS, AIBSNLEA, with the responsibility of exploring possibilities to take legal action to roll back the creation of Subsidiary Tower Company.
  6. A Steering Committee consisting of the General Secretaries of BSNLEU, NFTE, SNEA and AIBSNLEA is formed to monitor the struggles.
  7. Meeting the leaders of political parties and Central Trade Unions, by 30.01.2018, to mobilise support in favour of the demands of “The All Unions and Associations of BSNL”.

Charter of Demands

Settle:-

  1. 3rdPay Revision with 15% fitment from 01.01.2017.
  2. Settle pension revision.
  3. Settle left-out issues of the II Pay Revision
  4. Roll back the creation of Subsidiary Tower Company.
  5. No reduction in the retirement age from 60 to 58 and no VRS.

AIBDPA fully supports the programme and extends all solidarity to the struggle, which is fully justified. They will participate in all the programmes as earlier. AIBDPA thanks the All Unions and Associations of BSNL for including the demands of the Pensioners also.

 

Parliament Standing Community against disinvestment / privatisation of Air India.

The Parliament Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture has suggested to the government that instead of privatisation / disinvestment of Air India, it should be given at least five years for revival. Instead of privatisation / disinvestment, an alternative for improvement of the national carrier, which is the pride of the nation, should be explored, it said.

Certainly. The government should completely withdraw from its move to privatise / disinvest Air India, the pride of the nation.

FIR against those who exposed insecurity of Aadhaar !

The exposure by ‘The Tribune’ about the lack of security of Aadhaar and that the information in the Aaadhar can be breached and leaked has put the government on the defensive. But instead of taking necessary action to rectify and secure the Aadhaar, the Modi government has turned its anger on those who exposed the insecurity and filed FIR against the woman reporter and others as also against the newspaper.

Wide scale protest has come from all sections of society, including politicians and parliamentarians against this victimisation of the whistle-blowers. Government can not be allowed to gag those who speaks against its wrong actions. The action of the government is undemocratic and has to be protested.

The central government should post sufficient staff in CCAs

The payment of pensionary benefits, including revision of pension etc. are unduly delayed for the DOT and BSNL pensioners. When the issue is taken with the CCA, they are telling that there is acute shortage of staff and they are not able to cope up with the large number of cases of pensioners, increasing every year.

AIBDPA has already demanded that sufficient staff should be posted for dealing with the issues of the pensioners and there should be no difficulty and delay in getting pension and connected benefits to the senior citizens.

Loss making PSUs in Kerala made profit making under LDF Rule.

Central government is closing or privatising its PSUs one after another on the plea of loss making. Due to the anti-PSU policy of the Modi government, many profitable PSUs are drifting towards loss.

But in Kerala, the situation is different. While under the UDF rule led by Congress most of the state PSUs posted loss. There was corruption, misuse of funds etc. But after the LDF government came one and half years back, the PSUs have started improving and many of them have become profit making.

While in the UDF rule the total loss of the 42 PSUs under the Kerala government was Rs. 113 crore. During the last one year under the LDF rule, these PSUs has posted a total profit of Rs. 34.19 crore. This is the result of the pro-PSU policy of the government.

PAYMENT OF PENSION SHOULD NOT BE STOPPED FOR NON LINKING OF AADHAR WITH PENSION ACCOUNT

.
Non linking of Aadhaar with Pension Account and Payment of Pension
In a reply to a question the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance has stated in the Parliament that payment of Pension should not be stopped due to non-linking of the pension account with the Aadhaar number. And it is informed that in case if it is not possible to have Digital Life Certificate either through finger prints or through Iris scanning, the physical life certificate submitted by the pensioner may be accepted to avoid any harassment to the pensioner.

WFTU condemns arrest of Ahed Timami, 16 year Palestine Girl, by Isarel.

The Working Youth Committee of the WFTU strongly condemns the state of Israel for arresting and imprisoning of Ahed Tamimi, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl, because she resists against the Israeli occupation of her homeland. The Working Youth Committee will never accept the silencing of the struggling young people. We demand the immediate release of Ahed Tamimi and all the Palestinian political prisoners without terms or conditions.

AIBDPA expresses its full solidarity and struggle of the Palestine workers demanding release of the young girl!