CIRCULAR NO. 2013/5 22-02-2013
TO ALL CONSTITUENT
UNIONS / MEMBERS
Dear
Comrades,
UFBU Meeting :
Meeting of UFBU was held in Mumbai today. The Meeting
conveyed its heartiest congratulations to all the units of UFBU and entire rank
and file employees and officers for their massive and enthusiastic
participation in the Nationwide General Strike on 20th and 21st
February, 2013 at the call of central trade unions and the UFBU. The strike has
manifested the oneness of the bank employees and officers with the total trade
union movement in our country.
Homage to Com.
Narender Singh:
The meeting observed 2 minutes silence to pay homage to
Com. Narender Singh, the leader of transport workers union in Ambala who was
killed by a bus running on him when he was mobilizing for the success of the
strike on 20.02.2013.
Get Ready for Strike
against attacks on Trade Union Rights:
The meeting took note of the increasing attacks on trade
union rights, particularly in SBI and RBI where the managements took
intimidating and pressurizing tactics to wean away the officers and the
employees from strike action. The meeting decided to take up these issues with
IBA and the government and also prepare for strike action by end of March, 2013
if these vindictive attacks are not retraced.
Government attempts to
mislead:
Just on the eve of our strike, the Finance Ministry
issued a statement calling upon bank employees not to join the strike on the
following grounds.
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Government View Point
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Factual Position
|
|
1.
Section of the bank
employees are joining the strike
2.
None of the main points in the Charter of Demands of central
trade union has any connection with bank employees.
3.
Banks recruit staff every year.
4.
Bank Employees are already entitled to pension benefits.
5.
Bank employees have social security cover.
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100%
employees and officers under the banner of UFBU were on strike.
All the
10 demands raised by Central Trade Unions are applicable to bank employees.
Price Rise, Recruitment of adequate staff, Out Sourcing, Attack on Trade
Union Rights, Equal Pay for Equal Work, Disinvestment, Improvement in Bonus
Act, PF, Gratuity and Pension
benefits, etc. are all our demands also.
Nearly
200,000 vacancies of work men and officers remain vacant in banks. Many
permanent jobs are out sourced.
True, but since 1993 no improvements have
been made in the pension benefits.
The
compassionate appointment scheme to provide some job to the families of employees
who die in harness has been discontinued in the banks for the past 10 years
and still the scheme is not revised.
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Thus,
the government statement was only to unleash a misleading propaganda to defeat
our strike instead of resolving the demands of the unions. We are happy that
all unions have understood the game and made the strike a total success.
Discussions with IBA:
Further
to UFBU’s submission of charter of demands on the IBA for our wage revision and
the improvement in service conditions, the IBA had invited UFBU and accordingly
a preliminary round of discussions took place today between IBA and UFBU.IBA
team was represented by Shri. K R
Kamath, CMD-PNB and Chairman of IBA, along with the members of their
Negotiating Committee. UFBU was represented by leaders of our 9 Constituent
Unions. Both the sides felt and agreed that the negotiations should be
expedited and concluded in a time bound manner.IBA informed that the
Negotiating Committee will be headed by Mr. T M Bhasin, CMD- Indian Bank and
Vice Chairman of IBA. From UFBU, we pointed out that simultaneous to the
discussions on our charter of demands, the IBA should also take efforts to
resolve the pending issues like Compassionate appointment scheme, coverage of
remaining employees /officers under pension option scheme, Improvement in
Family Pension, Updation of Pension etc.
Next Round of Talks:
It has been decided that the next round of talks will be
held on 4th March, 2013. Comrades, the discussions on our charter of
demands have begun. It shall be the endeavor of UFBU to expedite the
discussions and strike a fair deal. We exhort all our units and members to
remain united and be in readiness to all the calls of UFBU to achieve our
demands to our satisfaction.
With greetings,
Yours
Comradely,
(P.K.SARKAR)
CONVENOR