FPJ Edit: Bank strike unlikely to deter disinvestment process
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The two-day strike by the unionised employees of the public sector banks, which ended on Wednesday, is unlikely to cause the government to drop the proposal to sell off two more nationalised banks. The nation-wide strike was a partial success with some banking operations continuing on both days of the strike. Given that the government has sought repeatedly to reassure the employees that their interests would be protected, it is correct to presume that the strike was motivated by ideological considerations.
Public sector bank employeesâ unions affiliated to the left parties were in the lead in organising the strike. Theirs is a voice in the wilderness, neither they nor their political masters now retain much political relevance, though they still have the capacity to create avoidable hurdles. Considering how disinvestments, mergers and acquisitions in the banking space have resulted in creating first-class private banks in a span of a couple of decades, considering their success with people preferring to bank with them, opposing the privatisation of two sick banks is counter-productive.