July 16, 2025
Some of the 250 million people taking part in a general strike in India, July 9, 2025.
Ten labor federations in India issued a joint statement on July 9, 2025, after a successful strike against new labor laws the government is seeking to impose. The federations are: The Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Trade Union Coordination Center (TUCC), Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Labor Progressive Federation (LPF) and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC). Excerpts from the statement, which have been edited, are below.
Congratulations to workers, farmers, agri-workers and the people at large for the grand success of the Nationwide General Strike on July 9, 2025.
More than [250 million] people participated in the Strike action / Rasta Roko / Rail Roko [road and rail blockade] all over the country in the formal and informal sectors, in government, public sector enterprises and industrial areas.
There were very large mobilizations in rural India and also at block-subdivision levels by informal sector workers, agricultural labor and farmers and other sections of common people. Participation of students and youth was quite visible in many states. The rank and file of Samyukt Kisan Morcha [United Farmers Front] and the joint front of Agricultural Labor Unions played a significant role in the mobilization in rural India.
The workers and their unions in coal, NMDC [National Mineral Development Corporation] Ltd, other non-coal minerals such as iron ore, copper, bauxite, aluminium, gold mines, etc.; steel, banks, LIC [Life Insurance Corporation of India], GIC [General Insurance Corporation of India], petroleum, electricity, postal, Gramin Dak Sevaks [the rural postal service], telecom, atomic energy, cement, port and dock tea plantations, jute mills, public transport, transport of various types in the private sector; state government employees in various sectors/states and central government employees in major areas like postal, income tax, audit and others went on strike.
The workers/employees in most of the industrial areas in the country, including in many [multinational companies], joined the strike in a big way and organized processions. The defense sector employees held protest demonstrations for one hour in support of the strike and [returned to the] office only after that as per their decision. The railway unions mobilized and participated in solidarity actions.
The unions in construction, Beedi [hand-rolled cigarettes], Anganwadi [rural childcare centers], ASHA [Accredited Social Health Activists], Mid-Day Meal [school lunch program] and other scheme workers; sanitation workers, fisheries, domestic workers, hawkers and vendors, head-load workers, home-based piece rate workers and rickshaw, auto and taxi workers were among those who participated in the strike and joined the Rasta Roko, Rail Roko at several places. [Scheme workers in India work in public health and provide essential services but have substandard pay and benefits. As the union federation AICCTU explains “These scheme workers who deliver some of the most essential services to the nation are themselves at the receiving end of ruthless and cruel exploitation of their labor.”]
The students, youth, women and social activists also participated in processions and dharna [refusing to leave a place as an act of protest] actions in many places. The common people supported these actions. The markets were closed at many places in response to the Strike/Bandh call. [A bandh is a general strike.]
There was a Bandh-like situation in many areas of the country, like in the states of Puducherry, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand Tamilnadu, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Goa, Meghalaya, Manipur, etc. Reports of partial bandhs were also received in many segments of Rajasthan, Haryana, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh etc. There were industrial and sectoral strikes held in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat. (The news from other states is still awaited).
Workers joined the strike action en masse throughout the country, bravely confronting numerous intimidating and repressive actions and threats by the administrations, both of the [central government] and many states and also the employers.
The strikers expressed their anguish against the anti-national policies of the government to favor Indian and foreign corporations and international finance capital against Public Sector Undertakings [PSUs, companies with a majority owned by the state], public services, as well as against the small trade and businesses. The government, through its policy of National Monetization Pipeline (NMP), has put on sale the infrastructure, the natural resources and national assets, which will jeopardize the self-reliant development of the country, posing a threat to its sovereignty. It is high time to oppose and fight these anti-national policies, the agitators opined.
The people expressed themselves against the rising inequalities in the face of an unprecedented price rise of essential commodities, rising unemployment and underemployment leading to desperation, increased suicides of casual labor and [increased numbers of] unemployed youth.
The government has not been conducting Indian labor conferences for the last 10 years, violating international labor standards, and continues taking decisions in contravention to the interest of the labor force, including attempts to impose four labor codes to favor employers in the name of “ease of doing business.”
The trade unions consider these labor codes as a negation of the labor rights won after a struggle of 150 years, from British Raj [British colonial rule from 1858-1947] onwards. …
The unions are asking for immediate recruitment in the sanctioned posts lying vacant in all government departments and PSUs, creation of more jobs in industries and services, increase in days and remuneration of MGNREGA [Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act] workers and enactment of similar legislation for urban areas. But the government is busy imposing [Employment Linked Incentive] schemes to incentivize employers instead, in order to subsidize their labor cost and informalize the workforce.
In government departments and in public sector, instead of providing regular appointments for youth, the policy to recruit the retirees on the one hand and appointing fixed–term/apprentices/trainees/interns in the core jobs on the other, is being introduced as witnessed in railways, NMDC Ltd, the steel sector, teaching cadres, etc. This is damaging to the growth of the country, where 65% of the population is below the age of 35, and the number of unemployed is maximum in the age group of 20 to 25.
The government is making fraudulent claims on employment and provisions of social security. The existing social security schemes are being weakened and attempts are being made to bring private players into it.
The attack on the democratic rights as enshrined in the Indian Constitution continues more vigorously by this ruling regime, and now the attempt to disenfranchise the migrant workers is being designed, beginning with Bihar as an immediate case.
The misuse of Constitutional bodies is rampant to suppress voices of opposition, the enactments in some states to control and criminalize mass movements is in the cards; the Public Security Bill in Maharashtra and similar enactments in the state of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, etc. are the pointers. Now the attempt to snatch [revoke] citizenship is in the cards.
This is the beginning of the prolonged battle in the days to follow in the sectoral levels focused on determined united resistance, again to culminate into a bigger national level of heightened, united action.
The unions in Delhi held a public rally at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, which was addressed by national leaders of 10 Central Trade Unions: Ashok Singh-INTUC, Amarjeet Kaur-AITUC, Harbhajan Singh-HMS, Tapan Sen-CITU, Rajiv Dimri-AICCTU, Lata Ben-SEWA, Chaurasia-AIUTUC, Jawahar-LPF, Dharmendra Verma-TUCC and R S Dagar-UTUC. The union leaders from [Insurance Corporation Employees’ Union] and MEC, and leaders of [All India Kisan Sabha] and agriculture workers also addressed the rally.
(Signed by the platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Sectoral Federations and INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC.)
