Joint appeal to join strike on 20 & 21 February 2013

All LIC officers and employees,

All the Central Trade Unions and a large number of independent Associations / Federations which met at a National Convention of Workers held at New Delhi on 4th September 2012 have called for two days nationwide strike on 20th -21st February 2013.  The strike is to protest against the policies of the government that are causing distress to the working class while creating vast inequalities in the country.

Massive preparations are underway in every sector of the economy for the success of the strike.  The strike is expected to be total in the financial sector with all unions of officers and employees in the banking industry deciding to join the strike. 

The demands projected in the strike are very important to the life and living of the working class and the national economic sovereignty.  The reckless pursuance of neo-liberalism has hugely increased the burdens on the working class.  The attack on jobs, mad rush to privatise public sector, privatise the pension funds, excessive reliance on foreign capital and total inability to contain the price rise have enormous implications both for the national economy and the Indian working class. Therefore, the decision by the trade unions to jointly resist these attacks and force the government to revisit these policies is the most welcome development.

This strike also calls for the withdrawal of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill.  We firmly believe that opposing FDI hike and building a greater unity of the trade union movement on this issue is crucial to the interests of LIC, public sector general insurance companies and the national economy. This has assumed urgency in view of the government’s attempts to push forward with the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill seeking to hike FDI limits and permitting privatization of GIC and the four public sector general insurance companies in the budget session of parliament.  The two days strike gives us an opportunity to build a broader resistance against the government moves.

In this background, we appeal all the LIC officers and employees to join the strike and make it a resounding success in order to build a broader movement to protect our industry and consequently the interests of the insurance officers and employees.

With greetings,
Yours friendly,

National Organisation of Insurance Officers (NOINO)
National Organisation of Insurance Workers (NOIW)
All India Insurance Employees’ Association (AIIEA)
All India LIC Employees’ Federation (AILICEF)
All India National Life Insurance Employees’ Federation (INTUC)
Bharatiya Vima Kamgar Sena (BVKS)