NEW DELHI: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU), the premier organization of media persons in the country, will support the national strike by the Central Trade Unions on Thursday, November 26, 2020, against the Union Government’s failure to respond to demands of workers and employees.
Many Central Trade Unions had announced their support to the strike as the Central Government not only failed to respond to the genuine demands of the working people but continued its brazen aggression against the rights of workers. Bipartism and tripartism are given a go-by. Labour laws, including the Working Journalists Act of 1955 that protected the Journalists and media workers, were annulled.
The IJU is very much perturbed about the Central Government’s role in scrapping the unique Working Journalists and Other News Paper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act of 1955 and the Working Journalists (Fixation of rates of wages) Act, 1958. New labour laws were brought in by the Government to equate media, considered as the `fourth pillar’ with any other industry.
The IJU passed a resolution in its National Executive Committee meeting in New Delhi on November 11, 2019 that had said: “The new Bill is to favour the corporate media barons who have been demanding to abolish the Wage Board. The press barons had gone to the Supreme Court against the last Wage Board but the apex court rejected their demand.”
The IJU seeks the support of all trade unions in the country against the scraping of the Working Journalists Act of 1955.
The IJU requests all its State units and all media persons to actively participate in supporting the national-wide strike of trade union on Thursday, November 26.
B.R. Prajapati, President & G. Prabhakaran, Secretary General, IJU November 25, 2020.