2 Lakh+ Bank Employees Will Strike On Oct 22 Against Mergers; Banking Operations Will Paralyse

On Tuesday, October 22nd, a massive bank strike will happen, which will paralyse all banking operations, across the nation.

It is expected that 2 lakh+ bank employees will take part in this strike, which has been called against the mergers of several public sector banks, and shutting down hundreds of branches.

Will Govt. listen to this opposition?

Massive Bank Strike On October 22nd

Two of the largest and most powerful bank employee unions have called for the bank strike on October 22nd.

All India Bank Employees Association (AlBEA) along with the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) have called for this strike. These two unions have 1,25,000 employees as their members, and 100% participation is expected from them.

Besides, this call for strike has received support from the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), which is India’s one of the biggest trade unions with 34 lakh members.

Overall, banking experts have predicted that 2 lakh+ bank employees will take part in this strike.

Reason For This Strike

The reason is quite obvious: Bank employees from public sector banks are not happy with Govt’s decision to merge 10 banks, and thus, shut down 6 important, and big banks.

This will no doubt lead to job loss and closure of bank branches.

AITUC, in a statement said, “We note that All India Bank Employees Association and Bank Employees Federation of India have jointly given the call for all India bank strike on October 22, against the recent decision of the government to merge 10 public sector banks into four banks thus, deciding to close down six important nationalised banks.”

Although Govt has assured that not even a single job will be lost, and redundant employees from the merged banks will be allocated different job profiles, but tension and chaos is definitely in the air.

Banking Operations Will Paralyse

Banks have started preparing their customers about this strike, as banking operations is all set to take a big hit.

Bank of Baroda, one of the banks which was merged with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank is expecting the worst, as they alerted all their customers with this message: “In the event the strike materialises, the functioning of the branches may be affected or paralysed,” 

Last month, even bigger bank strike was proposed, which was supported by All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).

Around 4 lakh bank employees were prepared to stop working for 4 days. 

However, this strike was postponed, after Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar assured them with a new review of the merger decisions.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in. 

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