By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Though on the eve of the workers’ all India general strike on July 9, 2025, Union Ministry of Labour, Government of India, tried to downplay the strike action by claiming that213 unions had informed of their staying away from the strike, India actually witnessed on Wednesday the largest ever general strike of workers in the history of workers’ strike in the country.
Some reports have estimated the participation of 30 to 40 crore workers breaking the earlier record of about 25 crore workers going on strike on November 26, 2020. Moreover, the latest strike action was not limited to the industrial areas, but escalated into non-industrial areas too acquiring a dimension of Bharat Bandh (Shut India), disrupting routine life of the people across the country.
The unprecedented success of the strike shows the hollowness of the Union Ministry of Labour’s claim about 213 unions not participating in the strike. The BJP and RSS supported Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) was included among non-participant workers’ unions, but it is a significant development within the workers’ struggle in the country that these worker’s unions had actually taken a stand that they would “neither participate nor oppose” the call of general strike.
Moreover, it is worth mentioning here that there are over 16,000 workers’ unions as per the government’s record, out of which 213 is a very small number, and barring the BMS, most of the unions have miniscule membership, and are limited to government and public sector and service unions. Even many among those who did not support the strike came out in favour of workers solidarity and did not work.
The call of general strike was originally given on March 18, 2025 by the National Convention of Workers (NCW) held in New Delhi. The NCW included the joint platform of 10 Central Trade Unions – INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, and UTUC – and the Independent Sectoral Federations and Associations, including in Bank and Insurance sector, such as AIBEA, AIBOA, BEFI, AIIEA, AILICEF and AINLIEF (INTUC). The farmers unions including the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) also supported the strike and participated in it.
The general strike was originally called for May 20, 2025 on the conclusion of two months of workers’ campaign against anti-labour and pro-corporate policies of the Union Government led by PM Narendra Modi, but was rescheduled for July 9, in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor. Workers 17-point demand include scraping of the four labour codes and stop privatization of public sector enterprises.
Many workers unions who were not participating in this general strike for many reasons, they organized protest demonstration across the country.
Most striking development is the political support of the opposition to the strike. All left political parties have supported the strike and the workers agitation for a long time, but all the parties in INDIA bloc in Bihar joined hands with the workers making the strike a grand success in Bihar. INDIA bloc has joined the issue of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Electoral Rolls in the state. Bihar development is significant since the state is being under NDA rule.
The impact of the general strike was most felt in the key sector of the Indian economy, such as banking, transport, and power. The state like Gujarat, which is ruled by the BJP, has also been severely impacted by disruption of banking operations, while in another BJP ruled state Uttar Pradesh power sector workers going on strike is also a significant development. Roads and Railways networks have also been impacted in several states across the country. Though the impact of the strike was felt most in the opposition ruled states, from Kerala to West Bengal, BJP ruled states from Gujarat to Assam were also underwent significant disruptions in various operations. Insurance, postal services, coal mining sector were also considerably impacted, while scheme workers in several states such as Anganwadi workers, and also MGNREGA workers also participated in the strike.
Coal mining and factory activities have been either completely halted or considerably slowed down across the country. There were only a very small number of industrial areas where there were limited impact on productions. Though the employees and workers in the Railway and government sector were not on strike, many of their unions had participated in the protest demonstrations across the states impacting services.
The most affected cities and regions were Bengaluru, Kolkata, Gujarat, Odisha (Bhubaneswar), West Bengal (Jadavpur, Siliguri), Kerala (Kottayam), Tamil Nadu (Chennai), and Bihar (Patna).
Kerala witnessed widespread disruption and scattered violence. Public transport suspended and the shops shut down. Many establishments were forced to shut down.
Andhra Pradesh, the state which is ruled by BJP’s ally TDP, also witnessed significant protests and the strike impacted both its industrial areas and towns. It is also an import red signal for the NDA partner, though not so stern as in Bihar’s ally JD(U) where the general strike impacted all towns, industrial areas, roads, railways and many other services.
In Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, several coal mines also suffered complete shut-down. Disruption in railways and road transport were also impacted at several places in both the states apart from general strike in industrial areas.
The main opposition party Congress, which leads the INDIA bloc at present has said that they will raise the issues of workers and farmers, and other woes of the people such as economic inequality, unemployment, and privatization of the public sector undertakings and handing over them to crony capitalists.
Other non-INDIA bloc parties, such as BRS in Telangana and BJD in Odisha, have also lend their support to the worker’s demand.
In an important development, 3 lakh defence civilian employees staged one-hour nationwide protests across more than 400 Defence establishments in show of unity with the striking workers of the country.
The dimension of the general strike of workers, supported by demonstration by employees and workers or all sectors including power, transport, bank, insurance etc, farmers, farm labours, scheme workers, and opposition political parties, shows the general discounted against the Union Government policies, which the Centre led by PM Narendra Modi must take into consideration to remove the tension that has gripped the industrial relations in the county. It must begin forthwith talks with the striking CTUs and independent federations and association, along with activating the tripartite apex organisation ILC by immediately convening its session which the government has not organized since 2015. (IPA Service)
