The central trade unions will go on a one-day strike on May 7 demanding merger of a portion of dearness allowance with basic pay and filling up of vacancies besides revival of sick public sector units.
The unions, including CITU, AITUC and HMS, said they have presented their eight-point charter of demands to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a meeting in New Delhi on Monday.
"The prime minister has requested us not to go on strike," CITU President M K Pandhe told PTI after the meeting the trade union leaders, led by Sitaram Yechury, had with Singh.
The unions, in a memorandum submitted to Singh, warned that they would oppose the government's "new initiatives" in disinvesting public shares in profit making PSUs through initial public offers.
The leaders, including Pandhe, AITUC's H Mahadevan and HMS' R A Mittal, also demanded merger of dearness allowance equal to 50 per cent of the basic pay with effect from April 2004 instead of January 2007 as decided by government.
The issue of contractual labour was also raised during the meeting, with union leaders expressing concern over the declining number of regular employees.
The leaders pointed out to the prime minister that the contract workers were not given decent wages and sought his intervention in ensuring at least minimum wages and benefit available to permanent workers.
