Trade unions call 2-day nationwide strike

New Delhi: The two-day nationwide strike called by trade unions will start from Wednesday after the meeting between the government and trade union leaders failed to reach a consensus on Monday, reports said.

"A meeting between central trade union leaders and the government has failed following which trade union leader G Sanjeev Reddy declared that the strike will take place as scheduled," CNN-IBN reported.

Eleven central trade unions and workers' federations have called a two-day nationwide strike starting from Feb 20, protesting against the government's "inaction" on price rise and alleged violation of labour laws.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday appealed to the central trade unions to withdraw their strike.

"I appeal to the central trade unions to withdraw their call for a countrywide General Strike on 20 and 21 February, 2013. Such a strike would lead to avoidable loss to our economy and inconvenience to the public through disruption of services," Singh said.

"While some of the issues raised by the trade unions are already being acted upon and others are at various stages of consideration, I have requested my senior Cabinet colleagues Shri A K Antony, Shri Sharad Pawar, Shri P Chidambaram and Shri Mallikarjun Kharge to together hold discussions with the leaders of the Trade Unions," he said.

"I am confident that these discussions would result in a course of action that is acceptable both to the Trade Unions and the Government," Singh said in a statement.