Two-day Bank Strike Begins Today

The bank employees unions decided to join the two-day Bharat Bandh and it will begin today. Many PSU bank branches will be closed as they have decided to protest in front of the bank about the issues affecting banking industries.

However, private banks and some state-run banks like the State Bank of India (SBI) won’t participate in the bandh.

If this strike goes well without any problem, banks will be open only for three days this week as ‘Second Saturday’ is the holiday.

All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) appealed all their members to join the strike.

But, as other unions didn’t support the strike, they might work normally. National Confederation of Bank Employees’ Siddhartha Khan said that SBI, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of India will work normally.

Some banks may partially disrupt and the employees affiliated to the protesting unions will only sit outside the office to protest, he added.

The bank strike is part of a two-day nationwide Bharat Bandh called by ten central trade unions including INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF, and SEWA.

This is the fourth bank strike call given in the last 20 days. The first two strikes happened on December 21^st and 26^th with the demands of a pay hike and cancellation of the merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank, and Dena Bank.