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Indian state workers on strike for higher pay

NEW DELHI: More than a million Indian state industrial workers launched a one-day strike on Wednesday demanding higher pay, a union official said.

"Even with conservative estimates, we think one to 1.5 million employees will take part," Swadesh Dev Roye, national secretary of the Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU), told Reuters.

Officials said workers in state steel, coal, oil, power and metal and mining companies stayed at home. State-run service sectors such as banking, insurance and telecommunications were unaffected.

The workers are demanding wage reviews every five years instead of 10, and are protesting the government's plan to close financially sick "public sector undertakings".

CITU said federal Labour Minister Satyanarain Jatiya had assured union leaders on Tuesday that the government would consider their demands and appealed to them to stay at work.

"This strike is a one-day warning strike. Should the government fail to come to a decision on our request, we will go on an indefinite strike at a time which will be decided in the immediate future," Dev Roye added.

The strike call has been made by the CITU, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Hindustan Mazdoor Sabha.

The Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, aligned to the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party, and the Indian National Trade Union Congress, affiliated to the main opposition Congress party, are not taking part.

The protest follows a stoppage in January by some 87,000 power sector employees in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh which left many parts of the state in darkness for 11 days.

Some 100,000 dock workers went on strike in January, crippling activity at 11 state-run ports for five days.-Reuters