Members of the Mysuru district committee of All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) held a demonstration at Ramaswamy Circle in Mysuru on Monday, demanding solutions to the burning problems of the working class in the country.
It was part of the week-long protest called by AIUTUC from February 11 to 17 across the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Mysuru District Committee of AIUTUC secretary, Chandrashekar Meti, said that he regretted that the Union and State governments, irrespective of which party comes to power, continued to implement policies favouring capitalists.
While the Centre had repealed labour laws which the workers had fought hard to secure and replaced them with a labour code that favours employers, the State government, by organising a Global Investors’ Meet, is assuring capitalists of all the facilities they needed at low cost, said Mr. Meti.
He claimed that neither the farmers, who gave up their lands, were compensated nor were the locals provided permanent jobs.
Mr. Meti said the minimum wages for workers had not been revised for the past ten years and pointed out that the owners of industries had moved the court and obtained a stay when the minimum wages had increased by a mere ₹1,000 in 2016 because the revision would be a burden on them. “Yet, these same owners are now forcing workers to work 12 to 15 hours a day. Governments are silently endorsing these demands,” he said.
In such a situation, Mr.Meti said a strong and organised struggle like the one led by Asha workers in Bengaluru can force any government to bend.
President of Mysuru District Committee of AIUTUC V. Yashodhar lamented that wages and incomes were not increasing in proportion to the rise in prices in all sectors. “This has left the common people, workers, and farmers in distress. Workers rights are being suppressed to silence them,” he said.
He also urged the workers to thwart the attempts being made to divide the unity of the working class in the name of caste and religion.
Workers from various factories, Mysuru Medical College and Research Institute, and Asha and mid-day meal workers also joined the protest.
