Defence civilian employees federations to go on an indefinite strike

Voicing their opinion strongly against the Union government's decision to corporatise the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) the three defence federations will go on an indefinite strike from July 26. A formal letter in this regard was issued to the defence minister Rajnath Singh.

"A broad based unity was built-up by the Defence Employees Federations to fight against the arbitrary, biased and one sided decision taken by the Cabinet on 16.06.2021 to splinter / slice the 220 years old 41 Indian Ordnance Factories into 7 Corporations. A Joint Meeting of the Federations held on 27.06.2021 have unanimously decided to revive the indefinite strike which has been deferred based on a conciliation settlement reached between the Ministry of Defence and the Federations of Defence Civilian Employees on 09.10.2020," the federations announced.

The three civil defence federations added that while the Federations implemented the settlement in its true spirit by deferring the strike the Ministry of Defence was going on violating the agreement by proceeding its actions to appoint consultant and implement its recommendations through the Empowered Group of Ministers "which is going to have far reaching implications on the national security, Defence preparedness and the future of 76 thousand devoted and committed workforce and their family".

"Our complaint to CLC(C) about the violation of the Ministry of Defence has not yielded any result and on 15.06.2021 the CLC(C) abruptly closed the conciliation proceedings which enable to the Government to take its decision on 16.06.2021. Considering this unhelpful attitude of the Government the Federations have now taken the following decisions," the federations lamented.

Federations and Unions will serve the notice of the indefinite strike on July 8 and commence it from 6 AM of 26/07/2021.

"Since it is a revival of the deferred indefinite strike no strike ballot is required to be taken and no six weeks notice is to be given. Model strike notice revival intimation letter will be forwarded to all the Unions for issuing the strike notice. The Federations will issue joint strike notice and independent strike notice to the Government," the statement read.

Letters seeking support from all the Chief Ministers and leaders of the political parties, Members of the Parliamentary Defence Standing Committee etc will be issued both jointly by the Federations and also by the local Joint Action Committees in the respective states.

"Unions of other Directorates to observe solidarity and support programmes including one day strike to be decided by the Federations. National level campaigning programmes to be conducted from 08/07/2021 will be finalised shortly. The joint decision taken by the Federations is conveyed to the Defence Minister, Secretary (DP) and Defence Secretary vide our Letter dated 29.06.2021," the statement said.