The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions, on Tuesday, gave a call for a two-day strike from March 15 to protest against the proposed privatization of two state-owned lenders.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcement in the Budget 2021 has raised concerns among public sector bank employees and unions. In her speech, she said that the government is looking to divest non-strategic, state-run firms, considering that they are outside the strategic ambit. In her budget speech, Sitharaman said “the government plans to privatize two state-run banks, besides IDBI Bank, and a general insurance company in FY22.”
A meeting of UFBU was held in Hyderabad in which all the nine bank unions decided to oppose the proposal of privatization of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) by the Centre on Tuesday.
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).
In the meeting, AIBEA General Secretary Ch Venkatachalam said “The meeting discussed the various announcements made in the budget of the central government regarding reform measures like privatization of IDBI Bank and two PSBs, setting up of bad bank, disinvestment in LIC, privatization of one general insurance company, allowing FDI in insurance sector up to 74 percent, aggressive disinvestment and sale of public sector undertakings, etc,”.
As a measure, the union will hold protests for two days- March 15 and 16, to oppose the government’s moves, AIBOC general secretary Soumya Dutta said.