NEW DELHI, Feb 9: The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions of bank employees, on Tuesday gave a call for a two-day strike from March 15 to protest against the proposed privatisation of two state-owned lenders.
In the Union Budget presented last week, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had without naming the banks announced the government’s move to privatize two Public Sector Banks (PSBs) as part of its disinvestment plan.
The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.
“It has been decided to oppose the government’s decision to privatise banks during the meeting of UFBU held on Tuesday,” All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C H Venkatachalam said.
“The meeting discussed the various announcements made in the budget of the central government regarding reform measures like privatisation of IDBI Bank and two PSBs, setting up of bad bank, disinvestment in LIC, privatisation of one general insurance company, allowing FDI in insurance sector up to 74 per cent, aggressive disinvestment and sale of public sector undertakings, etc,” he said.
The meeting observed that all these measures are retrograde and hence need to be opposed, he added.
Members of UFBU include All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI), Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).
(Manas Dasgupta)
