Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Wednesday, 26 November 2025
A joint forum of 10 central trade unions, the farmers’ collective Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), and the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) staged coordinated protests across the country on Wednesday, challenging the Modi government’s newly notified labour codes and demanding legal guarantees for Minimum Support Price (MSP), among other issues.
The demonstrations come days after the Centre notified all four Labour Codes, which restructure India’s labour framework by promising universal social security for gig workers, mandatory appointment letters, statutory minimum wages, and timely payment across sectors.
While projected as reform by the government, unions argue the new codes weaken hard-won labour protections.
In their memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu, the joint forum stated, "These codes negate our right to strike, make union registration problematic, de-recognition of unions easy, the process of conciliation and adjudication cumbersome, winding up labour courts and introducing a tribunal for workers, and overriding power to registrars to de-register unions."
The protests played out across more than 500 districts, according to AITUC general secretary Amarjeet Kaur, who told PTI that both formal and informal workers participated.
In its statement, the forum said a “massive mobilisation” unfolded nationwide, stretching from industrial clusters and public sector units to rural blocks and sub-divisions where agricultural labourers, farmers, and informal sector workers joined in.
The unions maintained their position that the labour codes amount to a dilution of labour rights. They also condemned an alleged attack on a worker-farmer demonstration in Dharmanagar, North Tripura.
At Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, former CPI(M) MP and AIKS leader Hannan Mollah accused the Centre of breaking its commitments.
"The Modi government has betrayed the workers and farmers of this country. Farmers and workers are united in this fight against the government's policies," he said.
SKM reiterated its long-standing demands: MSP based on the Swaminathan Commission’s formula with legal backing, loan waivers, halting electricity privatisation, and increasing both workdays and wages under MGNREGA.
Power sector workers also joined the mobilisation. AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey said lakhs of engineers and electricity employees protested against both the labour codes and the Electricity Amendment Bill.
The federation argues that the bill’s provision allowing multiple distribution licensees to use existing government networks opens the door to corporate expansion at the cost of public utilities.
"The bill seems to support privatisation motives. The central government continues to press ahead with its privatisation agenda through the Electricity (Amendment) Rules," Dubey said.
