HAL workers begin indefinite strike
Bengaluru: The workers of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited across its nine units in the country, began an indefinite strike on Monday, pressing various demands including wage revision.
All India HAL Trade Unions Coordination Committee (AIHALTUCC) had on Sunday announced the indefinite strike after talks with the management ended in failure.
"We are observing strike in all nine units of HAL all over India. More than 10,000 employees here are on strike and as a result work has come to a standstill," the AIHALTUCC chief convener Suryadevara Chandrashekhar told PTI.
The union leader also said the employees have hit the streets in protest.
In a statement on Sunday, the AIHALTUCC said during the wage revision negotiation meeting, the management had offered 11 per cent fitment benefit and 22 per cent perks for one to 10 Scale and 20 per cent perks for one scale.
The management told the union representatives that final offer will be given by Chairman and Managing Director provided all the nine unions come to an agreement on fitment benefit and perks and withdrew the indefinite strike.
The AIHALTUCC did not accept the management's conditional offer and decided to go on a strike seeking fair and early wage revision settlements.
The HAL management on Sunday said it had made all out efforts to find an amicable solution.
"Despite the management's concerted efforts towards bringing an amicable and early wage settlement, unions unfortunately have adopted a recalcitrant approach and did not accept the offer and decided to resort to indefinite strike; in spite of management's appeal not to resort to an indefinite strike and resolve the issue in a spirit of accommodation," it said in a statement.
The employees unions of the city-headquartered HAL have served notice at all locations of the Defence PSU to go on the indefinite strike from October 14 with regard to settlement of wage revision effective from January 1, 2017.
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Hamas accepts cease-fire proposal for Gaza, but Israel's stance still uncertain
Jerusalem, May 6: Hamas announced Monday it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but there was no immediate word from Israel, leaving it uncertain whether a deal had been sealed to bring a halt to the seven-month-long war in Gaza.
It was the first glimmer of hope that a deal might avert further bloodshed. Hours earlier, Israel ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating the southern Gaza town of Rafah, signalling that an attack was imminent. The United States and other key allies of Israel oppose an offensive on Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza's population, are sheltering.
An official familiar with Israeli thinking said Israeli officials were examining the proposal, but the plan approved by Hamas was not the framework Israel proposed.
An American official also said the US was still waiting to learn more about the Hamas position and whether it reflected an agreement to what had already been signed off on by Israel and international negotiators or something else. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a stance was still being formulated.
Details of the proposal have not been released. Touring the region last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had pressed Hamas to take the deal, and Egyptian officials said it called for a cease-fire of multiple stages starting with a limited hostage release and some Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to a full hostage release and greater Israeli withdrawal, they said.
