On the first day of the 41st session of the AITUC meet, leaders of various trade unions stressed on the need to strengthen the unity of trade unions to fight against the “anti-worker and anti-people policies” of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre. They added that the government was trying to throttle the neck of trade unionism in the country.

The leaders remarked that the country now has a “politically extreme right reactionary government, where freedom of expression was under attack.”

In his address, AITUC president Ramendra Kumar said that the centre was trying to saffronise the education sector and whipping up communal passion. Declaring that democracy in the country was in danger, he added that the government was trying to deprive the basic rights of workers, to favour the corporate houses.

The AITUC general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta extended the support to ‘Comrade’ Kanhaiya Kumar and the students of the JNU and Jadavpur University. “We are with you to carry on the battle,” he said.

“There was a need for the trade unions to unite to fight the Centre’s anti-people and anti-worker policies, and to protect the rights of the people and labourers,” he added.

CITU president, A.K. Padmanabhan said that it was the duty of the 11 central trade unions to safeguard the rights and interests of not just the workers, but also the farmers, youth, and the students, with the government foisting sedition charges against those who showed dissent.

He also informed that the unions have decided to observe March 10 as National Protest Day against the anti-worker policies of the centre and some state governments.

George Mavrikos, the general secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions General Secretary; C.A. Raja Sridhar, HMS president; and M. Shanmugam, LPF General Secretary were among the speakers at the conference.