Workers protest in Gurgaon against labour policies

Gurgaon, Feb 26 (IANS) Members of various trade unions, under the banner of the Trade Union Council, Thursday held a march in the city and staged a demonstration before the Mini Secretariat here, condemning the "anti-labour policies" of the central government.

Nearly 150 unions including the BMS, INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU and the AICCTU from Gurgaon and Rewari including Gurgaon-Manesar-Kherki Dhaula-Bawal and Dharuhera industrial belt gathered at Kamala Nehru Park here for a mass protest, making this the first such showdown.

The protests also came in the wake of long pending workers demands, including wage hike.

Workers from several companies, including Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Denso, Baxter, Hero MotoCorp, Endurance, Degania Medical, Lumax, Lumax DK, Satyam Auto, HI-Lex India, Mitsubishi India, Bajaj Auto and Xaverian Auto and others took part in the protest.

Over one thousand protestors were taken into custody by police but all of them were released later.

The protestors said the people elected the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the Congress had implemented anti-labour policies and supported corporates and multinational companies.

But the initiatives of the BJP government superseded those of the Congress in implementing policies favouring only the corporates.

They also demanded that the government should not sell the shares of public sector companies.

The protestors appealed to the government not to cripple the welfare board meant for workers in the unorganised sector.

CITU general secretary Satbir Singh, AITUC president Baldev Singh Ghanghas, Usha Sharma from Janwadi Mahila Sangh, Kuldeep Janghu from Maruti Kamgar Worker Union, Ashok Kumar from Honda and Anil Kumar from Maruti Powertrain were among the protestors.