Defence Civilian Employees Begin Three-day Nationwide Strike

Ahead of Republic Day and, in what might cause a big blow to the government, four lakh defence civilian employees from across the country have gone on three-day strike from January 23-25, to press for their demands before the Central government. The workers are protesting against the Central government’s decision to handover defence production to the private sector.

The nationwide three-day strike has been called by three trade unions, All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), Indian National Defence Workers Federation (INDWF) and Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMS). These four lakh defence civilian employees are from 41 ordnance factories, 52 DRDO laboratories, Naval Dockyards, workshops and depots under the Army, Navy and Air Force, said reports. According to Mumbai Mirror, over 20,000 defence manufacturing and maintenance employees from Mumbai alone have joined a nationwide strike.

The workers are protesting against the Central government’s decision to handover defence production to the private sector. The workers will also press for demands for withdrawal of the decision to declare the products of the Ordnance Factories as non-core, no closure of EME station workshops and depots under Director General Ordnance Services, no GOCO model of Army Base Workshop and no outsourcing in MES, DRDO, DGQA and Navy and filling up all vacancies in all the defence establishments. According to Mumbai Mirror, workers are also protesting against the New Pension Scheme first introduced by the Vajpayee government, in which the employees who are retiring get only Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000. According to the earlier Central Civil Services Pension Scheme, 1972, the minimum pension was Rs 9,000 plus a dearness allowance.
Inputs from Freepressjournal