Workers across India are preparing for a massive show of strength and unity on 9 July 2025, as Central Trade Unions and independent federations have called for a nationwide general strike. Public Services International (PSI) affiliates are joining this action through strikes, dharnas, and demonstrations to protest the erosion of labour rights, rising precariousness, and the continued push to privatise public services.

This strike comes amid worsening conditions for India's workforce. The government has failed to convene the Indian Labour Conference for over a decade, sidelining dialogue with workers and aggressively pushing four anti-worker labour codes aimed at dismantling collective bargaining and empowering employers under the guise of ‘Ease of Doing Business’.

The platform of unions has sharply criticised the economic policies of the government, which have led to rising unemployment, price inflation, wage suppression, and cuts in social sector spending, deepening poverty and inequality.

The main demands of the workers include:

• Scrapping the four labour codes

• Fixing a national minimum wage of ₹26,000/month for all workers, including those in informal and unorganised sectors

• An end to casualisation, outsourcing, and fixed-term employment

• Equal pay for equal work for contract workers

• ₹9,000/month minimum pension and comprehensive social security for all categories of workers

• Restoration of the Old Pension Scheme and scrapping of NPS/UPS

• An end to the privatisation of public sector enterprises and services

PSI-affiliated unions participating in the protests include:

• Delhi State Electricity Workers Union

• Indian National Municipal and Local Bodies Workers Federation

• Indian Defence Workers Federation

• All India National Life Insurance Employees Federation

• DTC Employees Congress

• Tamil Nadu Electricity Board unions

• Rajasthan Vidyut Prasaran Mazdoor Union

• Vidyut Karmachari Morcha Sangathan

• Tamil Nadu Government Officials Union

• Hind Mahila Sabha

• Akhil Bhartiya Sinchai Karamchari Mahasangh

• Municipal employees’ unions in Mumbai and Nagpur

• National Organisation of Government Employees

This strike is not only a reaction to recent policies—it is a collective demand to reclaim the Indian Constitution’s promise of social and economic justice.

The defence sector will hold gate protests, while railway unions will mobilise in solidarity. Workers from sectors such as coal, steel, construction, domestic work, street vending, transport, and scheme work (ASHA, anganwadi, midday meals) are also joining en masse. The strike has garnered broad support from youth, student, women’s, and farmers' organisations, including the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and agricultural workers’ unions, who plan mobilisations in rural India in solidarity.

PSI stands firmly with all workers rising on 9 July. This is a strike for justice and decent work.