Click to play videoMumbai: On Friday, public sector banks, including SBI on went on strike but in urban centres, did it really matter if your bank wasn't working?
With an ATM at every corner, bank strikes seem to be losing their sting unless you run a small business.
The day started off with sloganeering and a march to the Azad Maidan in Mumbai.
And by now public sector unit bank employees as well as customers are familiar with the routine since it's only the reasons that change with every strike.
"Fifteen per cent employees don’t get pension and then there is the problem of outsourcing. Thirdly, why is there no recruitment?” said Secretary of The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), Vishwas Uthagi.
October was anyway a bad time to go to the bank with five official bank holidays and five Sundays, not counting the strike on Friday.
If the customer is urban, the effect of such a strike is negligible since today, most of us have alternatives.
A few years ago maybe a strike of this kind would have been more effective but what about rural areas and small-scale industries?
"Clearing operations and foreign exchange departments are affected and over all a 400-crore business,” says Joint Secretary of AIBEA, Lalitha Joshi.
But if you run a company, it would not have been a good day because that Rs 1 lakh payment is just not available through these machines.
“One would face foreign exchange and month-end problems. Many of our clients who were not able to transfer their funds through other banks did that through net banking,” says Assistant Vice-President, Integrated Finance Group, Mary John.
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