Make the Cochin Refinery strike a success: CITU

Make the Cochin Refinery strike a success: CITU

A strike is being held on September 7 and 8, 2020, against the delay in revising the wages of BPCL employees. The unions representing most of the company's employees have jointly given the strike notice.

The privatisation move is the reason for the delay in revising the employees' wages.

The revision has been due since January 2017 at the Mumbai Refinery, since August 2018 at the Cochin Refinery, and since June 2018 for marketing employees. The management has stopped talks with the trade unions and issued an ultimatum to accept its proposal, threatening to withdraw all its offers if the ultimatum is not accepted.

The management is not following the guidelines on wage revision in public sector undertakings. BPCL is a 'Maharatna' central public sector undertaking that makes an annual profit of more than Rs 5,000 crore. In this situation, the demand for a timely wage revision is entirely just.

The CITU state secretariat declares its support for the BPCL employees' strike and appeals to all workers to make the Cochin Refinery strike a success and to express their solidarity.

Elamaram Kareem
General Secretary