New Delhi, May 20
In an alarming move likely to have a direct impact on the NDA government, leading trade unions today threatened to launch a nationwide stir against the ongoing privatisation, amendment of labour laws and the removal of quantitative restrictions by the Central Government.

A meeting of the central trade unions, held today to review the just concluded 37th session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) , expressed dismay, shock and concern over the outcome of the conference.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the seven central trade unions also expressed shock over Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s statement about employers’ claim that unemployment and poverty had gone down in the liberalised regime saying that it was “totally unfounded and baseless”.

The Prime Minister in his inaugural speech at the ILC had completely ignored the burning issues raised by the workers’ representatives and had responded to and accepted only the points raised by the employers group, the statement pointed out.

The unions — All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and others, met today to chalk out the future course of action. The unions would meet again on May 24 at the office of the BMS to decide and finalise the course of the united struggle, the statement said.

The unions would agitate against the “thoughtless privatisation of profit-making and potentially viable public sector undertakings, including defence sector industries, and the removal of quantitative restrictions”, the statement said.