(Image source from: Livemint.com)

Services hit after two-day nationwide bank strike:- United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the body of nine unions is on a two-day nationwide strike that starts from today against the privatization of the lenders. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the privatization of two public sector banks last month during the Union Budget presentation in the process of a disinvestment plan. The Indian government already privatized IDBI Bank in 2019 after selling the majority stake and merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years. With this two-day strike, the transactions of the banks came to a halt for four complete days in a row with Saturday and Sunday being holidays.

All the services such as deposits, withdrawals, loan approvals, cheque clearances and others are completely affected. The ATMs will continue to function normally. Several meetings are conducted and they did not end up successful. Around 10 lakh bank employees and officers are participating in the strike. All the nationalized banks informed about the strike in advance. However, all the private banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank will continue their services and they are unaffected by the strike. All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI) and All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) are participating in the strike.

The Unions in four General Insurance Companies will head for a strike on March 17th. LIC Unions will head for a strike on March 18th against the privatization of the public companies.