Team Herald
PANJIM: Workers joining the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) Goa rally have demanded that mining operations in Goa be resumed immediately and that companies stop retrenchment in the backdrop of the current crisis in the mining industry.
In one of the resolutions during a meeting to commemorate International Workers Day, also known as May Day, the attendees, majority of whom comprised mining workers also demanded that auctioning of leases should not be carried out. “The mining operations should start immediately as lakhs of families are dependent on this activity for their livelihood. The workers who have been laid off should be taken back by the mining companies and there should not further lay-offs,” the workers resolved at the meeting after a rally held in the city on Tuesday.
They also conveyed their grievance on the non implementation of the 7th Pay Commission in the corporations, autonomous bodies, and semi government offices in the State. The workers demanded its immediate implementation and sought that employment on contract basis should be discontinued and jobs be regularised.
In a series of other demands, the workers who were led by trade union leaders also condemned violence against women and children pointing out to the brutal Kathua rape and murder. They demanded that any person involved in such crimes, including offences against minorities, should a face fast-tracked trial and be severely punished. Another demand was to reduce the increasing price of petroleum, AITUC’s Suhaas Naik said.
The union also resolved that the trade union force should be converted into a political front in order to oust the present coalition government in the State.
