Bank union to go-ahead with strike on Tuesday after talks with govt fail

Bank union is protesting against the government's decision to merge ten public sector banks into four banks

T E Narasimhan | Chennai Last Updated at October 21, 2019 

Bank strike. Photo: PTI

The banking operations will hit on Tuesday as about 350,000 employees in All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) will take part in the strike. The bank union decided to go-ahead with the strike after talks convened by Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), Ministry of Labour, failed on Monday.

AIBEA and BEFI had called for the strike to protest against the government's decision to merge ten public sector banks into four banks and thus deciding to close down 6 important nationalised banks.

AIBEA General Secretary Venkatachalam said that the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), Ministry of Labour, Government of India convened joint discussions and held conciliation meeting in New Delhi. Representatives of IBA and Finance Ministry/Department of Financial Services were present.

"IBA appealed to us not to go ahead with the strike but could not come out to resolve any of the demands raised by us. We made a detailed written submission about the justification for our strike call. In the absence of any positive outcome in the meeting, it has been decided to go ahead with the strike. Hence our call for strike stands. We exhort all our unions and members all over the country to go ahead with the strike and make the 22nd October strike a stupendous success," said Venkatachalam.

The Central Trade Unions and All India Trade Union Congress have extended support and solidarity with the All India Bank Strike on Tuesday.