UFBU has called for two days Bank strike on March 15 and 16

The employees from various public sector banks (PSBs) have decided to go on strike from March 15-16, 2021. This is going to badly affect, the banking services across the country over the next four days. The strike was organized to show their protest against the proposed privatization of two state-owned lenders.

The two-day strike starting from March 15 has declared by The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which is an umbrella body of nine bank unions. Despite, the strike for two days of strike, two bank holidays on March 13 (second Saturday) and March 14 (Sunday) would make a four-day break in the regular banking operations.

The protest by the union body of bankers is in response to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2021-22 announcement. She has declared the privatization of two public sector banks (apart from IDBI Bank) as part of the government’s disinvestment move to generate Rs 1.75 lakh crore. The government has suggested privatizing two PSBs and one general insurance company in the financial year 2021-22.

In 2019, the government has already privatized IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake to the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) 2019 and merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.

The Additional Chief Labour Commissioner on March 4, 9, and 10 – did not yield any positive result after meetings – before, said All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C H Venkatachalam in a statement.

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) and Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI).