ON the very first day of the two-day countrywide general strike by workers on January 8-9, police in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan lathi-charged, used teargas and fired on the peaceful assembly of the workers in front of Japanese company Daikin Airconditioning Private Limited in the so-called ‘Japanese Zone’ in the Neemrana industrial area in Alwar district. Several workers were injured in the police action.

ON the slogans of, no to direct cash transfer and no privatisation in ICDS; implement minimum wages of Rs 18,000 per month and pension of Rs 6,000 per month for anganwadi workers and helpers; regularise them as government employees; make anganwadis full time as anganwadi cum creches, the ALL India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH) union has decided to march to parliament on February 25, 2019.This march will be a culmination of consistent struggles in last five years for the rights of the children for nutrition, health and education.

OPPOSING the proposed privatisation of six airports in the country, Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU wrote a letter to the union minister for civil aviation, on February 11.It is shocking to note that the government of India has decided to privatise six more airports of the country that are functioning under the Airports Authority of India through the so-called PPP route.  The airports proposed to be privatised at the moment are Trivandrum, Guwahati, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangalore as per the reports received.The CITU vehemently opposes such a move of privatisation of these six

THE extended meeting of the office bearers of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), held in New Delhi on February 6-7, 2019 has issued a statement condemning the state government of Rajasthan for preventing the free movement of the high level team of the central trade unions led by CITU general secretary and former MP, Tapan Sen, and consisting of CITU national secretaries E Kareem, MP (Rajya Sabha) and Shankar Datta, MP (Lok Sabha); other national and state leaders of CITU, AITUC and HMS, and the all India leader of Kisan Sabha, Amra Ram, former MLA of Rajasthan.

THE working committee of the All India Fishers and Fisheries Workers’ Federation met in Hingalganj in North 24 Paraganas district of West Bengal on January 22, 2019. More than 40 working committee members and invitees from seven states including Tripura, Kerala, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka participated in the meeting. Meetings of the subcommittees on marine, inland and allied sectors, constituted by the AIFFWF working committee met prior to this meeting and discussed the issues of fishers and fisheries workers in those sectors.