Bank unions call for 2-day strike against proposed privatisation of Public Sector Banks

NEW DELHI: The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) on Tuesday has called for a two-day bank strike from March 15 and March 16 to oppose the Centre's proposed privatization of Public Sector Banks (PSBs), t.

This comes after the Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the privatisation of two Public Sector Banks (PSBs) as part of its disinvestment plan while presenting the Union Budget last week.

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According to reports, the decision to launch a two-day strike was decided at the meeting of UFBU held in Hyderabad where all the nine bank unions -All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), Indian National Bank Employees' Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers' Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW), National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO) -- were present.

The meeting discussed the numerous announcements made in the central government's budget regarding reform measures including privatization of IDBI Bank and two PSBs, aggressive disinvestment and sale of public sector undertakings, setting up of bad bank, privatisation of one general insurance company, disinvestment in LIC, and allowing FDI in insurance sector up to 74 %, etc.

The meeting observed that all these steps are regressive and must be opposed.

By selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 the government has already privatized IDBI Bank and merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.