1974 railway strike in India

Strike by the workers of Indian Railways April 2019 April 2019 Railway Strike 1974 yes 1974 5 8 - yes 1974 5 27 India Stagnant long working hours of locomotive staff Eight-hour working day for locomotive staff Strike suppression and failure All India Railwaymen's Federation Indian Railway Board The 1974 railway strike in India was a major strike by the workers of Indian Railways in 1974. The strike lasted from 8 to 27 May 1974.Sridhar V Chronicle of a strike http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1819/18190750.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20120527051644/http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1819/18190750.htm 27 May 2012 28 September 2023 Frontline 18 19 15 September 2001 The 20-day strike by 1.7 million workers is the largest recorded industrial action in the world.http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944832,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20081222065706/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944832,00.html dead 22 December 2008 INDIA: Strangulating Strike TIME 20 May 1974 2012-02-11https://www.jstor.org/pss/4395459 4395459 Railway Workers and Their Unions: Origins of 1974 Indian Railways Strike Sherlock Stephen Economic and Political Weekly 14 October 1989 24 41 2311–2322 28 September 2023 Reasons for the strike The strike was held to demand an eight-hour working day for locomotive staff by the All India Railwaymen's Federation a raise in pay scale, which had remained stagnant over many years, in spite of the fact that pay scales of other government-owned entities had risen over the years.THE INDIAN RAILWAYS STRIKE OF 1974: A Study of Power and Organised Labour http://indianrailwayemployee.com/content/indian-railways-strike-1974-study-power-and-organised-labour Indian railway employee website Indian railway employee 5 June 2018 Furthermore, since British times the Railways termed the work of the locomotive staff as "continuous", implying that workers would have to remain at work as long as the train ran on its trip, often for several days at a stretch. The independence of India did not change this. The eight-hour work day had not been implemented in Indian railways by the Railway Board, a quasi-government bureaucracy despite having become a free country in 1947; this had led to dissatisfaction among workers, especially locomotive pilots.Sherlock Stephen The Indian railways strike of 1974: A study of power and organised labour Hardcover 1 February 2001 Rupa & Co. Mumbai 8171675344 Traditional railway union leaders too were starting to get distant from worker demands and closer instead to politicians, thus leading to further discord. The spread of diesel engines and the consequent intensification of work in the Indian Railways since the 1960s resulted in continuous working hours being extended by days, creating much resentment among the workers.Ramakrishnan Nitya Remembering George Fernandes As He Was, Before He Lost Himself https://thewire.in/politics/why-george-fernandes-is-a-force-to-be-reckoned-with 5 June 2018 The Wire 3 June 2018 The Railways, although government-owned, remained an organization in which the accepted worldwide standard of an eight-hour working day was violated with impunity. When the crafts unions raised the issue, they demanded a 12-hour working day for loco running staff. This led to railway strikes by rail workers across the country in 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1973, finally leading to the 1974 strike which was joined by 70% of the permanent workforce of railways. This was not the first railways strike in India, the earliest having occurred in British India in 1862 in Howrah, and a number of strikes having occurred in the private railway companies that operated in British India, most of them becoming part of the Indian freedom struggle. As President of the All India Railwaymen's Federation, George Fernandes led the strike. Culmination The strike commenced on 8 May 1974. The strike was brutally suppressed by the Indira Gandhi government with thousands being sent to jail and losing their jobs. The strike was called off on 27 May 1974.http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/lr/2002/01/06/stories/2002010600140200.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20050306025910/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/lr/2002/01/06/stories/2002010600140200.htm dead 6 March 2005 Looking back at anger 6 January 2002 The Hindu 28 September 2023 References Railway Strike In India, 1974 Railway Strike In India, 1974 Railway strike in India Category:History of the Republic of India Category:Indira Gandhi administration Railway strike in India Category:Rail transport strikes in India