12/01/2026
AITUC Extended State Council Meeting held to Ensure the Success of the Nationwide General Strike on 12 February Demanding Repeal of Anti-Worker Labour Codes.
Bhubaneswar, 11/01/2026:
An extended meeting of the State Council of AITUC was held today at the AITUC State Office premises under the Chairmanship of State President Comrade Ashok Kumar Dash. In a written statement, the State General Secretary Comrade Bijay Jena stated that under the dictates of corporate capitalists, the communal, authoritarian BJP–NDA government has launched a systematic attack on the working class. In this process, out of the 44 labour laws that embodied the long struggles and human rights of the working class before and after India’s independence, 15 labour laws have been completely repealed.
By diluting the rights and entitlements of workers contained in the remaining 29 labour laws, the government has enacted four labour codes to facilitate exploitation of workers and employees by corporate employers. These labour codes are pushing workers and employees into a medieval condition of slavery system. Against this, on the call of the United platform of Central Trade Unions, a Nationwide General Strike has been called on 12th February demanding the repeal of these anti-worker labour codes. A strong appeal was made to ensure the success of this strike. After detailed discussions, unanimous decisions were taken in this regard. It was unanimously decided to host the AITUC National Working Committee Meeting at Bhubaneswar in March 2026. As the All-India Working Women’s Conference is to be held at Patna in March 2026, the decision is taken to organise a State-level Working Women’s Conference prior to it.
Since the AITUC National Conference is scheduled to be held at Bangalore from 21st to 25th November 2026, it was unanimously decided to organise conferences of various unions, district conferences and state-level union conferences in Odisha prior to it, culminating in the State Conference.
Emphasis was laid on intensifying united mass movements by all unions affiliated to AITUC to achieve the demands and rights of the working class, against the communal, authoritarian BJP–NDA government run at the behest of corporate capitalists—a government that is hostile to workers, employees, peasants, youth, students, women and intellectuals.
Addressing the meeting, CPI State Secretary Dr Prashant Kumar Mishra called upon the working class to become more organised to secure their rights and entitlements, and stressed the urgent necessity of ensuring political representation of the working class in the Legislative Assembly and Parliament.
Former MLA N. Narayan Reddy, AITUC State Working President Maheswar Rout, Vice Presidents Gauranga Panigrahi and Sarojini Acharya, State Secretaries Jayanta Das, Mayadhar Nayak, Namita Sahu, Brajabandhu Pradhan, and District leaders including Bhagabat Pratihari, Bidyadhar Mahant, Sur Jena, Debasish Babu, Manoranjan Parida, Karunakar Sahu, Matilda Kullu, Bishnupriya Jena, Kahnu Behera, Subas Mahapatra, Soudamini Damini Dash, Kabita Sethi, Arati Dashmahapatra, Narmada Nahak, Laxmipriya Mahapatra, Pramod Mohanty, Bidur Kumbhar, Prabin Dash, Nilakantha Dash, Surendra Sharma, Santosh Kanwar, Abhisek Satapathy, Shyam Sundar Jena, Kamal Sandha, Rabi Rath, Sisir Mallik, Gyan Ranjan Pradhan, Narasingha Mal Bisoyi, Harihar Mohanty, Sk Amzad, Bhramarabar Rout, Kapil Mohanty,Paramananda Behera and many others participated and discussed various resolutions at the meeting.
