The BJP government amidst strong protest in the Parliament had passed Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to keep away a section of people living in India by striping their right as citizen. They have imposed religious criteria in considering certain sections of people violating provisions of our Constitution. Such discrimination was created to cover up their lapses found in imposition of National Register of Citizenship in Assam and to advance their communal agenda throughout the country. Nineteen Lakh of people in Assam has been removed from the register declaring them as outsiders in India and confined thousands in detention camps where living conditions are inhuman and people are facing death due to lack of health care. The CAA also overturned the carefully balanced agreement arrived in 1985 through Assam Accord. Similar imposition is now being planned in other states where detention camps are being ordered to construct where the workers and particularly migrant workers will be the worse sufferer.

This ill afford of BJP Govt. has caused wide spread protest in all over the country when three persons were killed in police firing in Assam, students and other people were brutally attacked by police and goons in JNU, AMU, Jamia Milia University, etc. injuring many, also en mass arresting peaceful protesters. Even sanctity of these institutions was breached by police who never bothered to ask permission from the Vice Chancellors.   

The central Trade Unions anxiously observe that the BJP Govt. is creating discrimination which may division the country and may cause widespread discontent among people irrespective of religion, caste and creeds. This is also being used to deviate attention from the present crisis and to create divide among the unified protest of the working people against the anti people policies of the BJP Govt.

The Central Trade Unions demand of the Govt. to repeal CAA, not to proceed with NRC and stop police atrocity on the protesters. We call upon all affiliated unions to organise wide campaign among the workers participate to the protest actions.

        INTUC                      AITUC                     HMS                      CITU                  AIUTUC

          TUCC                SEWA                       AICCTU                      LPF                    UTUC

Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) unequivocally condemns the brutal attacks unleashed by the Delhi Police, perpetrating this crime at the instance of Central Home Ministry, against the Students of Jamia Millia Islamia Central University when they took out a peaceful protest march against the unconstitutional Citizenship (Amendments) Act on Sunday. The hired agents and provocateurs were deliberately engaged to go berserk and arson with the connivance of police, so as to bring disrepute to the peaceful procession of Jamia’s Students. On these pretext, Delhi Police attacked the students mercilessly and beaten up students-both boys and girls. Then the police barged into the JMI University campus without the permission of either Vice Chancellor or Proctor and continued the attacks even in the reading rooms and restrooms and dragged students out of the library and the mosque, and assaulted them heavily.  Some men in civilian dresses attacking girl Students went on viral in the social media. In these Police brutalities scores of students have sustained grievous injuries. Some victim students are said to be critical and one student, we learnt that succumbed to this barbaric acts. More than 100 students were arrested.

We congratulate the initiatives of JNU Students, immediately hearing upon this police assaults, hundreds of students, youths and general public at large gathered outside the Delhi Police Headquarters close to midnight defying the freezing cold demanding immediate release of detained students and then around 35 of them were released around 3.30 am at early hours on Monday.

CITU demands the Central government that the rest of the arrested students be released immediately and suspension of all officers of Delhi police who were responsible for these reprehensible actions. CITU, expresses the unflinching support and solidarity with the brave students of Jamia Millia Islamia Central University who are fighting to protect the secular and democratic Constitution of India.

(TAPAN SEN)
General Secretary

CITU condemns RSS-led BJP’s Modi government for getting the discriminatory Citizens' Amendment Bill (CAB) hurriedly passed by the Parliament and converting it as an Act after immediate Presidential assent. This is the blackest act in the country’s legislative history.

It is an attack on the secular, democratic and equality based inclusive foundation of the Constitutions of India; an assault on the humanity perpetrated by the communal forces guided by fascistic ideology to change the basic character of India’s Constitution towards ‘Hindu Rashtra’.  

The working class, who are already battling against the aggressive neoliberal policy regime; must rise to the occasion and defeat the BJP government’s machination to divide the people and suppress their movement against economic and social exploitation and repression.  

Despite CAB becoming a law its implementation can be defeated by the people through united struggle at every stage and in every front. People are already on the street in different parts of the country opposing the CAB and the Act. Trade union movement must take the lead.

CITU calls upon the workers and united trade union movement in general and  CITU units and the unions in particular to unitedly launch countrywide movement to defeat implementation of BJP government’s Citizenship Amendment Act; and join all other sections of the toiling masses in the countrywide democratic movement against it.

(Tapan Sen)
General Secretary, CITU 

CITU is deeply shocked and anguished on learning the details, collected through its cadres in Delhi, of the ghastly fire at Anaj Mandi in North Delhi in the early hours of Sunday, the 8 December, 2019.

It is to be recalled that the fire has resulted in the tragic death of 43 workers and injury to 56 workers, some of them in critical conditions, in the plastic luggage manufacturing factory. The victims were migrant workers, mostly from Bihar, some of them were child labourers, working in long hours of shifts, beyond permissible limits, at a paltry sum of Rs.150 per day in gross violation of minimum wages declared in Delhi. The illegal factory in the congested residential area has violated all safety norms and labour laws. 

The CITU cadres, who visited the place several times to investigate the cause, found that all three authorities - the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), the Government of NCT Delhi and the Union Government are responsible for this tragedy, misgovernance and of corruption.

NDMC is the sanctioning authority and responsible for large scale illegal factories in the congested residential areas like the factory where fire incident took place.

Government of NCT Delhi is responsible for gross failure of its labour enforcement authorities in implementing safety norms, prevention of child labour and enforcement of labour laws including the recently declared minimum wage.

The Union Government is responsible for ending ‘inspection’ of factories and failure/complicity of Delhi police, under its Home Ministry, for allowing such illegal activities in the residential areas.

Absence of safety norms is rampant in Delhi causing fire repeatedly breaking out including the major fire that took place in Jhilmil industrial area this July 2019 causing workers deaths.  

CITU expresses its deepest condolences to the bereaved families and sympathy to those injured. CITU demands adequate compensation to the families of those who died; and medical care and compensation to those injured.

CITU demands proper and speedy investigation of the incident, system failures and corruption involved and punish the guilty.

CITU also demands urgent investigation of the deficiencies in all industrial establishments in Delhi, publish report and take corrective measures; and enforcement of safety norms and labour laws in all such establishments.  

Issued by
Tapan Sen
General Secretary

Call of the Rally :
Participate on 8th January 2020 Strike in lakhs
Create Record Breaking History

The Construction Workers Federation of India (CWFI) conducted a three month-long campaign, propaganda, and State / Regional level mobilization on the following demands.

Further massive signature campaign throughout the Rural and Urban India was also conducted under the banner ‘PETITION TO SPEAKER, LOK SABHA WITH ONE CRORE SIGNATURES’

The demands are as under:

To stop the merger of Building and Other Construction Workers Act (BOCW Act) providing Social Welfare Scheme:

(a) Pension (b) Accidental Compensation ( c ) House Building Loan/ Assistance (d) Maternity Benefit (e) Children Education Allowance/ Assistant (f) Minor / Major Medical Operation Assistant (g) Safety & Health - Provision implementation throughout the country.

Today around 15 thousands Construction Workers organized a huge demonstration at Parliament Street, New Delhi coming from all over the country covering the southernmost state of Kerala, the northeastern states of Assam, Tripura, The Western State of Maharashtra, the eastern major West Bengal and of course the entire range of northern States.

Prominent among the Speakers included Tapan Sen – General Secretary, CITU, Members of Parliament, T. K. Rangarajan, E. Kareem, A. M. Arif & all CPI(M) MPs, M. Shanmugham, MP,DMK & General Secretary - LPF, Sukhbir Singh – President, CWFI, V. Sasikumar – General Secretary, CWFI, Debanjan Chakrabarti – Vice-President, CWFI, Swadesh Dev Roye & A. R. Sindhu, Secretaries, CITU. 

A 5 member delegation led by the President and General Secretary of CWFI went to the speaker of the Lok Sabha in his chamber at Parliament House and presented the petition on which signatures were collected from all over the country.

Today, 28^th November, the  nationwide strike action has been successfully carried out by the workers of BPCL, HPCL and ONGC (MRPL) Refineries and Marketing operations under the banner of the National Federations of Oil & Petroleum Workers with the participation of around 30,000 regular and contract workers from the  fifty work-place level affiliates of these Federations. The huge magnitude of the strike has clearly demonstrated the determination of the workers to stop the Modi Government’s move to privatise BPCL and HPCL. The workers have participated in the strike braving the threat and intimidation by Modi Government and prohibitory orders obtained by the managements at behest of ruling dispensation through various High Courts.

In Kerala Kochi Refinery it was complete strike.  1250 permanent employees and 6356 Contract Workers were on Strike.  The total workers in the Marketing operations of BPCL, HPCL and IOCL in all the southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh participated in the strike in full strength. Tanker Lorry Workers also joined the strike. In Mangalore Refinery (MRPL) the permanent and contract workers numbering around 5,000 were on strike.  HPCL refinery at Vizag workers organized a March and Demonstration. At the Refinery Main Gate at Numaligarh (Assam) regular and contract workers staged a huge demonstration in support of the strike.

At the call of CITU, AITUC, INTUC, HMS, TUCC etc, workers participated in large numbers in the solidarity mobilization and black-badge wearing throughout the state of Kerala.

In Mumbai Refinery and Marketing operation in Western Region the sweep of the strike was unprecedented. Several thousands of striking workers of the Refinery and Marketing including the Corporate Centre assembled in front of BPCL Refinery gate, Chembur and organized a Long March and assembled in a big public meeting at Chembur Rail Station. The biggest Bottling Plant of Asia situated in the Region at Uran, near Mumbai had to be shut down due to the impact of the strike.

All workers in the Bottling Plants, Bulk Storage Installations and Regional Headquarters of the Northern and Eastern Regions, overwhelmingly, took part in the strike covering around 45 different location  spreading  across  the states of NCR, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal, Uttarakhand, UP, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar etc.  The striking workers from Delhi and nearby states organized a Dharna at Jantar Mantar and they were addressed by several M.Ps and Central Trade Union Leaders.

This historical strike action has become a precursor to adopt decisive Action Programme to stop privatization of BPCL, HPCL and MRPL (ONGC) in the already scheduled next National Convention of Oil & Petroleum Workers at Kolkata to be held on 22^nd December, 2019 and reassuring the massive participation of entire Oil and Petroleum Sector workers in the forthcoming 8^th January 2020 All India General Strike.

Issued by
Tapan Sen
General Secretary

Central Trade Unions express their strong protest and utter annoyance at the disastrous decisions of the Government of the day to Privatise excellently run cash rich CPSUs. Paths pronounced are out right Privatisation, partial but effective privatisation by divesting up to 76 per cent of the Government Equity of the concern CPSUs. According to the decision, BPCL, CONCOR and Shipping Corporation will be sold out to private companies. Further, NTPC is being directed by the Government to buy out NEEPCO and THDC.

Apart from the above CPSUs, the other targets of privatisation onslaught are, reportedly, Indian Oil (current government stake 51.5 per cent), NTPC (54.50 per cent), Bharat Electronics (58.83 per cent), BEML (54.03 per cent), Engineers India (52 per cent), GAIL (52.66 per cent) and National Aluminium Co (52 per cent).

The Central Trade Unions note with indignation that the recent economic ‘bailout packages’ presented by the Government mainly to benefit the big business houses shall cost the Exchequer of the country a huge amount of Rs.1.45 lakh crore. More such packages are under consideration of the Government. Now to make good the revenue loss, the Government has resorted to selling out CPSUs with huge physical and financial assets. Shockingly the Government is turning blind eye to the fact that privatization of CPSUs is bound to inflict revenue loss on account of loss of huge amount of taxes, duties and dividend payment by these CPSUs.

The Central Trade Unions urge upon the Government to reverse the decision of Privatisation of CPSUs. The Central Trade Unions extend full support to the decision of the BPCL Workers to launch one day token strike on 28^th November, 2019. They have been conducting various campaign, propaganda and agitation activities to make the strike a grand success.

The Central Trade Unions appeal to the all CPSU workers irrespective of affiliation to organise protest action against the above mentioned shocking decision of the Government. Given the aggressive desperation of the Government to eliminate public sector from the economic map of India, it is felt that the need of the hour is to urgently activate the United Platform of CPSU Worker to chalk out appropriate Nationwide long-drawn struggles. 

• Strike in BPCL, HPCL & MRPL on 28^th November
• To participate in the countrywide General Strike on 8^th January

A National Convention of Oil & Petroleum Workers was held at the Constitution Club, Speakers’ Hall, New Delhi on 20^th November 2019. It was jointly organized by the Trade Unions of different affiliations as well as the unaffiliated ones functioning in ONGC, IOC, OIL, BPCL and HPCL. Around 300 workers representatives from these oil PSUs from all over the country participated in the convention. The Delegates came from the states of Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and National Capital of Delhi.

The inaugural address was delivered by G. Sanjeeva Reddy, President, INTUC. General Secretary AITUC Amarjeet Kaur also addressed the convention. I M Uniyal, N A Khanvilkar and Nogen Chutia, the General Secretaries of the three apex federations functioning in the oil PSUs, namely: All India Petroleum Workers’ Federation (AIPWF), National Federation of Petroleum Workers (NFPW) and Petroleum & Gas Workers’ Federation of India (PGWFI) respectively constituted the presidium and also addressed the convention.

The Declaration of the Convention was presented by Swadesh Dev Roye, National Secretary, CITU. Around 15 Delegates participated in the discussion and the Declaration was adopted unanimously. The Declaration captured quite exhaustively facts and figures exposing the policy bankruptcy of the Government, its persuasion of crony capitalism and its subservience to foreign oil MNCs. It also noted the adverse impact of the privatization to the country in terms of economy, national security, corporate social responsibility,  employment and democratic trade union rights. The convention condemned the Government for the suicidal decision of privatization of oil PSUs.  

Members of Parliament: Elamaram Kareem, K.K. Ragesh, K. Somaprasad, A.M. Ariff  from CPI(M ), Binoy Viswam, CPI, Hibi Eden, Congress Party,  Anil Desai and Gajanan Kirtikar, Shiva Sena addressed the convention.

The Convention reiterated the decision of the last Mumbai Convention held on 26th October 2019 of Strike Action on 28^th November 2019 by BPCL, HPCL and MRPL workers and noted that preparation for the nationwide strike is going on very well. All the concerned unions have already served Notice of Strike. Strike preparatory Campaign, Propaganda and Agitation in the oil PSUs throughout the country going in full swing. Further the convention also called upon the oil & petroleum workers to intensify campaign, propaganda and agitation towards preparation for the 8^th January 2020 nationwide General Strike called by the central trade unions. The next National Convention is decided to be held at Kolkata on 22^nd December 2019.

Swadesh Dev Roye

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) strongly condemns the brutal police attack on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ peaceful march to the Parliament on Monday that left at least 15 students grievously injured, including a visually-impaired student, demanding total roll-back of exorbitant hostel fees hike. They have been struggling for a month now, against these hefty fees hike which has become a virtual “rustication” order for students with family income below Rs.144000 who make up 40% of the student population in JNU.

CITU extends its solidarity and support to the struggling JNU students and calls upon its units to condemn the high-handedness of Delhi police, controlled by Modi regime and the insensitivity of University administration towards the plight of our poor and marginalized students studying in JNU. CITU urges upon the Central Government and HRD Ministry to initiate the discussion with them and to settle amicably at the earliest.  

Issued by
Tapan Sen
General Secretary

Centre of Indian Trade Unions expresses deep concern at the mass retrenchments of employees in the IT sector. IT majors like Cognizant, Infosys, and Capgemini have reportedly announced retrenchment of thousands of workers. While Capgemini has already laid off around 5000 workers, Cognizant is reported to be laying off 7000 of its workers. Infosys announced that around 10% of its employees at different levels, 2200 at senior manager level and around 4000-10000 at the associate and middle level will be fired.

All these IT multinational companies have been earning huge profits and there is no reason to retrench employees. The firing operations are being taken up on the pretexts of ‘growth plans’, ‘restructuring’, ‘role rationalisation’ etc, which are nothing but measures to maximise their profits at the cost of employees.

It is highly regrettable that the BJP government at the centre as well as the different state governments have remained silent spectators to this illegal firing of employees.

CITU commends the IT employees in different states, who are resisting these illegal measures of IT companies and are gradually getting organised to collectively fight this injustice.

CITU demands the government at the Centre as well as the concerned State governments to stop this illegal retrenchment of IT employees and take measures to protect them. It reiterates its support and solidarity to the IT employees and urges upon them to continue their collective resistance.

CITU also calls upon all its members and state committees to strongly oppose the illegal retrenchments by the IT multinational companies and stand in support of the IT employees.

Issued by
Hemalata
President