A number of employees of the two defence units in Tiruchi observed Black Day on Friday by boycotting lunch in protest against "splintering" of the Ordnance Factory Board into seven corporations.
They condemned what they termed as the "unilateral" decision of the Modi Government at the Centre to disintegrate the 220-year-old Indian ordnance factories into non-viable corporations. It was a first step to subsequently hand over the national assets of the 41 factories to private corporates, the employees apprehended.
They also questioned how they could be deputed to the seven corporations without taking their consent after having been recruited as central government/ defence civilian employees, and cautioned that the disbanding of the OFB will have serious impact on the national security of the country. "Indian army will be forced to be at the mercy of private corporates," General Secretary of Amarjeet Kaur said.
Employees affiliated to All India Defence Employees' Federation, Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, Confederation of Defence Recognised Federations, National Progressive Defence Employees Federation, and All India Bahujan Defence Employees Federation took part in the lunch boycott protest.
In a referendum conducted by these trade unions in the 41 ordnance factories during September, 61,199 out of 61,564 employees, constituting 99.41 percent of the workforce had voted against the government decision.
In Tiruchi district, 99.73 percent of the 1,342 employees in Ordnance Factory, Tiruchi, and all the 690 employees of the High Energy Projectile Factory rejected the government decision to corporatise the OFB.
