INTUC to join anti-UPA strike on 7 September

In a development that could be the cause of some embarrassment for the government, the trade union arm of the Congress party, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), has announced its participation in the anti-UPA general strike on 7 September.

The Congress is the dominant partner in the rulling UPA alliance at the centre.

In a move that serves to underscore the distance between it and the government, the INTUC made the declaration in the company of rival trade union CITU's M K Pandhe and CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta.

Lashing out at the Manmohan Singh government for its ''failure'' to take adequate steps to contain price rise, particularly food inflation, INTUC chief Sanjiva Reddy, said at press conference in New Delhi, ''We have in mind a massive workers' march to Parliament in February next year.''

This was barely a few hours after finance minister Pranab Mukherjee sought to reach out to the INTUC leader, who is also a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC). However, Reddy stuck to his plans in association with other central trade union leaders to announce the countrywide agitation.

Responding to a question as to how the Congress-affiliated INTUC was joining the Left trade unions, Reddy said, ''If Congress could form a government with the Left's support, then what is the harm in joining hands with them for an agitation.'' Reddy said the trade unions had been forced to draw up a joint strategy with the deteriorating economic conditions for the working class.