The workers, belonging to INTUC, AITUC, CITU, HMS, UTUC, AICCTU and AIUTUC, marched down from five points in the city and converged at Parliament Street for a rally in the heart of the Capital.
The workers demanded change in what they called the “indifferent attitude” of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government towards the poor and middle class people of the country.
The march was called to heap pressure on the government to help the inflation-hit poor in next week’s budget. All India Trade Union Congress general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said this was a protest against the unprecedented price rise and large-scale violation of labour laws. Mr Dasgupta called upon the government to check the tendencies. Interestingly workers of the Congress affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) also participated in the protest.
The president of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and Congress MP G Sanjeeva Reddy said that the Prime Minister was responsible for price rise and should ensure that it is brought under control.
Addressing the workers, he said rising inflation has hit the common man hard “but the government has done little to contain it”.
Reddy also attacked the economic policies of the Congress-led UPA Government, saying it has only given rise to contractual labour force who are being discriminated against.
“You know I am a Congressman but when it comes to the cause of the workers, we don’t think about party lines. So this is the first time we have joined other central trade unions in our protest rally,” he said.
The union leaders presented a five-point charter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar demanding immediate measures to stem price rise, universalisation of PDS and curbs on speculation in the commodity markets.
They also demanded enforcement of all labour laws, creation of national fund for the unorganized sector and stopping of disinvestment of central public sector enterprises shares to meet budgetary deficit.
Criticising the anti-labour policies of the Government, trade union leader Gurudas Dasgupta said, “the massive demonstration comes in the wake of the world wide uprising of people against the decline in their quality of life”.