The Hindu Business Line : More unions back SBI stir

The all-India strike by officers and staff of State Bank of India entered the second day on Tuesday with more representative unions from the banking fraternity coming forward to express solidarity at various centres in Kerala.

State-level leaders of the National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE) and the All-Kerala Bank Employees Federation (AKBEF) took part in demonstrations held in front of the Local Head Office here and addressed the participants.

The Reserve Bank of India had directed commercial banks to take over the clearing operations from SBI as the strike entered the second day. But, according to leaders of the striking unions, this could not take off due to opposition from activists of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) who empathised with the striking SBI unions.

Employees of SBI under the banner of the All-India State Bank Officers' Federation (AISBOF) and All India State Bank of India Staff Federation (AISBISF) had launched their indefinite nationwide strike on Monday for resolution of the pending issue of pension revision. The second day of the strike saw large numbers of pensioner and family pensioners taking part in the demonstrations.

Support from outside members of the banking fraternity has only reinforced the resolve of the strikers, said Mr John Joseph, General Secretary, State Bank Staff Union (SBSU) and Mr M. Sreenath, General Secretary, SBI Officers Association (SBIOA).

The leaders who addressed the gathering in front of both the Local Head Office and the Zonal Office of the bank exhorted members not to be misled by rumours spread by interested parties to sabotage the strike programme.

Mr S. Vinayachandran, President, SBIOA; Mr Raja Kurup, President, State Banks' Staff Union (SBSU); Mr T. Sasikumar (NCBE) and Mr C. Gopinathan Nair, Vice-President, AKBEF, were among those who addressed the demonstrators.