Defence Employees’ Federation : Press Release

ALL INDIA DEFENCE EMPLOYEES’ FEDERATION
INDIAN NATIONAL DEFENCE WORKERS’ FEDERATION
BHARTIYA PRATIRAKSHA MAZDOOR SANGH
(RECOGNIZED FEDERATIONS OF DEFENCE CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES)

Date : 20.08.2019

PRESS RELEASE
FOR FAVOUR OF PUBLICATION

To,
The Editor
____________________
____________________

82 THOUSAND DEFENCE EMPLOYEES AND 40 THOUSAND CONTRACT WORKERS
COMMENCED ONE MONTH STRIKE AGAINST THE CORPORAT1SATION OF
ORDNANCE FACTORIES FROM 06.00 AM OF TODAY (20.08.2019)

DEFENCE PRODUCTION SCALED DOWN TO ZERO

82 thousand Defence Employees and 40 thousand Contract workers of Ordnance Factories commenced one month strike against the Corporatisation of Ordnance Factories from 06.00 AM of today (20/08/2019). The 218 years old Indian Ordnance Factories under the Ordnance Factory Board is a Government Department. However the present Government at centre have arbitrarily decided to convert these Factories into Corporation/PSU. In the past two decades, so many committees have recommended for converting the Ordnance Factories in to a Public Sector. However the Ordnance Factories being war reserve and solely dependent on the Armed Forces cannot function as a commercially viable PSU. Therefore right from the previous Defence Ministers, S/shri.George Fernandes, Pranab Mukherjee, A.K.Antony and Manohar Parikkar have rejected those recommendations and have assured the Federations that the Ordnance Factories would not be corporatized.

The present government without any justification has brought this as an agenda in its 100 days programme and have decided to corporatize the Ordnance Factories. The three recognised Federations, CDRA and other unrecognized

Federations and Trade Unions have decided to protest against the arbitrary decision of the government, since once the Ordnance Factories are converted into Corporation/PSU, then in due course it will lead to Privatisation by disinvestment etc. Moreover the 82 thousand Central Government Employees working as Defence Civilian Employees in these Factories will loose their status and they will become the employees of the Corporation, thereby depriving them of the various benefits available to them. Since the government have refused to listen to the demand of the Trade Unions to not corporatize the Ordnance Factories, a strike notice was served on 01/08/2019 for a one month strike. The strike has commenced at 06.00 AM today (20/08/2019) and the entire workforce are staying away from work, resulting in scaling down of the Defence Production to zero level. Strike was a total success in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur, Katni), Maharashtra, UP, Uttrahakand, Bihar and Chandigarh, where the Ordnance Factories are located. The strike was a total success at Ordnance Factory Board, Headquarters, Kolkata.

The strike will continue upto 19th of Sept. 2019. The Federations urges upon the Government of India to come forward to reconsider its decision to corporatize the Ordnance Factories and withdraw the same in the interest of the Defence preparedness of our country and also the service life of 82 thousand Employees and their families.

(C. SRIKUMAR)
GENERAL SECRETARY
AIDEF
09444080885
[email protected]

(R. SRINIVASAN)
GENERAL SECRETARY
INDWF
09444125799
[email protected]

(MUKESH SINGH)
GENERAL SECRETARY
BPMS
09335621629
[email protected]

Source: Confederation