Bank unions plan nationwide protests against merger

The United Forum of Bank Unions, which represents a million bank employees across the country, is planning massive protests against the government’s move to merge 10 state-run banks into four bigger banks. The forum is an umbrella body that represents four officers’ unions and five non-officers’ union. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has also criticised the move and offered support to the forum’s protests. 

“There will be serious strikes; we are going on a massive confrontation with the government,” C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All-India Bank Employees Union (AIBEA), told BusinessLine. 

File image of a bank employee at work. Photo: Reuters

The All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), the apex body of the bank officers’ trade union movement, has expressed “outright opposition” to the move. According to a statement released by the AIBOC, the creation of four new banks by merging 10 PSBs, “will only enable them to create larger balance sheets to conceal the NPAs and absorb more losses and haircuts. This is a clear diversion of attention from the core issue of NPA recovery. It is common knowledge that mergers cannot resolve or clean up balance sheets.”

Andy Mukherjee has written in Bloomberg on how, “the benefits (of the merger) won’t be felt for years, while Modi’s government is staring at an economic crisis now”.