Building a Wider
Horizon With Labour
The Left-affiliated central trade unions will go ahead with the one-day nationwide strike on Friday, even as the Centre on Tuesday announced sops in a bid to placate the unions. The peace offering includes a hike in the minimum wage for unskilled non-agricultural workers in central public sector units from Rs. 246 to Rs. 350 a day and formation of a committee to look into extending benefits under the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation Act to unorganised sectors, including anganwadi, mid-day meal and Asha volunteers. The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh saw it as a "historic victory for workers" and decided not to participate in the strike, while the others were dissatisfied and refused to drop the strike plan.
