Jun 16-30 2018

A joint conference of the trade unions of Delhi was held on 2nd June 2018 at the AITUC Bhavan located on Deendayal Upadhyay road. More than 140 representatives of different trade unions participated in the conference. Representatives from unions related to Transport, Health services and Municipal Corporation of Delhi and others were also present. The atmosphere of the conference was very enthusiastic.

An indefinite all India strike was started on 22nd May 2018, under the banner of the ‘All India Gramin Dak Sevak Union’(AIGDSU). Their struggle met with success on the 15th day of their strike i.e. on 6th June when the government finally accepted the demand to increase their wages.

Successive governments in India have slyly and stealthily been doing step by step privatisation of the Indian Railways. Privatisation of British Rail has often been cited to justify privatisation moves in our country. The Bibek Debroy Committee recommended that Indian Railways should follow the privatisation model of Britain. It said, "The key lesson from the UK is to retain the rail-track and infrastructure as a publicly-owned monopoly, while opening up rolling stock operations for passengers and freight to the private sector." This Committee conveniently did not state that privatisation of British Rail has not delivered the promised results to its users and that now due to their pressure and that of the workers, has been forced to partially renationalise certain routes.