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Trade unions including the All India Trade Unions Congress and
Centre of Indian Trade Unions rejected a government appeal on
Tuesday to call off the strike, saying it failed to address
their demands.
Since taking charge in May 2014, Modi has implemented a raft of
economic reforms and is trying to ease labor laws to attract
foreign investment and make it easier to do business in the
country.
The government aims to raise 560 billion rupees ($8.35 billion)
through privatization this fiscal year, and shut down some
companies. Losses at 77 state-run companies exceeded $4 billion
in the last fiscal year.
Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre of Trade Unions, said
there had not been any "tangible proactive steps" by the
government to address union demands such as a rollback of
privatization in sectors like defense and railways, and an
increase in minimum wages.
He said the strike would go on despite Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley's promise on Tuesday that the government would release
state employees' bonuses for the last two years, and increase
minimum wages for unskilled laborers.
The unions also oppose a government directive to state-run
pension funds to put more money into stock markets.
Another major union, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is
loosely affiliated with the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of Modi's Bharatiya
Janata Party, is not joining the strike.
Some workers at Coal India Ltd <COAL.NS> are due to join the
strike but company officials said they did not expect any
shortfall in supplies for power companies as there was an
oversupply of the fuel.
($1 = 67.0300 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by)
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