Bankers on nation-wide strike again, second in a week
(Sourced from PTI)
Operations at branches of public sector banks across the country were impacted today due to a strike by unions against the proposed merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda (BoB). The strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organization of 9 unions. This is the second bank strike in less than a week.
UFBU includes All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE) and National Organization of Bank Workers (NOBW). According to AIBEA General Secretary C H Vekatachalam, the strike is effective across the country and employees are fighting for a right cause. However, branches of new generation private sector banks remained unaffected by the strike.
UFBU claims to have the membership of nearly 10L bank employees, and officers across 21 public sector banks. Last Friday, an officers' union of state-run banks observed a day-long strike to protest the merger, and also demanded immediate settlement of wage negotiations.
In September, the government had announced the merger of state-owned Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with the larger peer Bank of Baroda. The merged entity will have a combined business of Rs 14.82 trillion, making it the third largest bank after SBI and HDFC Bank. The unions are claiming that the merger is not in the interest of banks or their customers.
"This merger will see a large number of branches getting closed and customers will have to face hardships as already banks are burdened with the implementation of various government schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra, and PM's housing scheme, among others," the union said.
