Indian insurance workers strike to fend off privatization

Employees of all five nationalised insurance companies across the country went on a day’s strike to protest what they termed as `the beginning of privatisation of insurance sector’.The UPA Government recently introduced the Insurance Amendment bill in the Parliament to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the current 26 per cent to 49 per cent in United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance, National Insurance, New India Insurance and Life Insurance Corporations. The strike was called by General Insurance Employees Union (GIEU) and All-India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA).Their main demand was to merge the four general insurance companies into a single monolithic corporation because they were duplicating each other’s work. The main contention of the striking employees was that the introduction of the bill was the first step towards privatising insurance.