People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 01
January 06, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 01 January 06, 2013 |
Swadesh Dev Roye WORKERS of the central public sector
undertakings
(CPSUs) have decided to participate in the
countrywide general strike on
February 20 and 21, 2013. The call for the strike
came from the national
convention of workers held at the Talkatora Indoor
Stadium, The participation decision was taken by
a very
widely attended national convention of central
public sector workers held at
Chennai on December 15, 2012. Around 400 delegates
attended the convention. The
most significant features of the convention were,
first, the participation of trade
unions from almost all the public sector industries
and, secondly, representation
of all the central trade unions organisations there.
The latter included the CITU, AITUC,
HMS, INTUC, BMS, LPF and several
independent federations. Swadesh Dev Roye
represented the CITU in the presidium
which was composed of one representative from each
of the eight apex trade
union organisations. NEO-LIBERALISM WITH A VENGEANCE The proceedings of the convention took
off
with the addresses made by the central trade unions
leaders. CITU general secretary
Tapan Sen delivered the inaugural speech.
Reiterating the historical
achievement of total unity of the trade union
movement in the country, he
launched a scathing attack on the disastrous policy
of the UPA-2 government of
dismantling the public sector. Sen told the
delegates that the policy of
privatisation, the onslaught on trade union rights,
the dangerous distortion in
employment profile due to continuous decrease in
regular employment and the huge
increase in contractisation in public sector
undertakings are interrelated. He
said the policy of sell-out of even the cash rich,
huge profit making public
sector companies in strategic sectors can
neither be looked upon in isolation from the
neo-liberal economic policies
pursued with a vengeance by the UPA-2 government nor
can it be defeated by the movement
of public sector trade unions alone. While the united initiative of all the
trade unions has raised the workers’ voice strongly
against the devastating
public sector destroying policy of the government,
Tapan Sen said the trade
unions in CPSUs, irrespective of affiliations, need
to come forward to fight shoulder
to shoulder with the rank and file of the rest of
the trade union movement in
the country; in the short term they have to
participate in the countrywide
general strike on February 20 and 21, 2013. He Tapan
told the delegates that
without making the February 2013 strike successful
the anti-public sector
policy of the government could not be defeated. A total of 46 speakers contributed to
the
deliberations of the convention. The speakers from
the floor represented public
sector enterprises from very wide-ranging sectors
and industries, for
example, coal,
steel, power, oil and
natural gas, petrochemicals, transport, mines,
telecommunications, defence
production, shipyards, heavy engineering, and of
course the Bangalore and
Hyderabad based CPSUs, in very large numbers. The convention adopted a joint
declaration
which was signed by representatives from all the six
central trade union
organisations and by the Joint Action Front of
Bangaluru and the Coordination
Committee of CPSU Trade Unions of Hyderabad. A
summary of the Declaration is
being published below. JOINT DECLARATION OF CPSU WORKERS Through its Declaration the convention
noted
that the CPSUs have been contributing to the central
exchequer on a big scale with
an ever increasing rate. The financial strength of
the CPSUs can be judged from
the fact that 40-plus CPSUs
has a
total cash reserve of Rs 2.15 lakh crore.
This includes the shares of
Coal It is therefore shocking that apart
from launching
an onslaught of privatisation, the government is
desperately squeezing the
excellently run huge profit making PSUs through
multiple techniques. Huge
amounts of money are being extracted through taxes
and dividends. Again, in the
background of extreme volatility and
fluctuations in the share market, PSUs are
compelled to enlist in the share
market in order to rescue the shaky stock
exchanges from the serious crisis of
creditability. The
Declaration further said that, in the face of
private investors’ refusal to
invest due to continuously aggravating stagnant
market, the government has
imposed a decision on 17 PSUs that they must
effect domestic
investments of over Rs 1.4 lakh crore
while overseas acquisitions are expected to be of
the order of Rs 35,000 crore.
Shockingly, the Union Finance Ministry is reported
to have said that “if the PSUs do
not fall in line, the ministry
may ask the PSUs to surrender their cash reserves
to the government through big
dividends” [Financial
Express, September 17, 2012]. The convention also noted with utter
shock
and anger that while in the fiscal 2012-2013 the
budgeted target of
disinvestment is Rs 30,000 crore, the government has
declared its intention to
offload the shares of around 75 CPSUs and already
identified 15 such entities for
disinvestment of shares worth Rs 33,500 crore. The
list includes BHEL, SAIL,
RINL, HAL, NALCO, MMTC, NHPC, NTPC, NLC, NMDC, Oil In order to push through its
disinvestment
programme in a hurry in order to address the
increasing fiscal deficit, the government
has resorted to various derogatory policy measures.
Such steps include the
policy of ‘buyback of shares,’ ‘selling through
auction route’ and ‘offer for
sale.’ These options are, of course, in addition to
the IPO and FPO
routes. The joint convention expressed concern
over
the alarming increase in the number of contract
workers and decrease in
permanent workers in the CPSUs. The stoppage of
recruitment of permanent
workers and resort to massive contractisation and
casualisation of workforce
are issues posing serious challenges to the trade
union movement. Compared to
around 23 lakhs in the 1980s, the number of regular employees in the CPSUs has gone
down to 14.44 lakh in
2010-11. Meanwhile, contract workforce has already
attained extraordinary
numerical and strategic strength in the PSUs as a
whole. Despite their huge
contribution in the production, productivity and
profitability of the PSUs
concerned, these contract workers are the victims
of despicable exploitation in
regard to the terms and conditions of employment,
including wages and benefits,
social security and safety. Their wages are
atrociously low compared to regular
workers doing the jobs of the same and similar
nature. RECENT STRIKES The convention took due note of the
fighting spirit of workers against such a state of
affairs, as is reflected in
their recent struggles. On July 24, 2012, about
17,000 workers of the Similarly, on October 20, 2012,
approximately 15,000 employees of the NALCO in
Odisha, comprising regular and contract
workers as well as executives observed a 100 per
cent successful strike to oppose
the proposed disinvestment in the company. On the
strike day, all the central
trade unions also staged a joint demonstration
before the central office of
NALCO in In NMDC, a countrywide one day strike
was
observed on November 22, 2012, and the unions have
resolved to go in for a weeklong
strike to oppose the disinvestment of shares of this
PSU. Many more strike struggles are under
preparation
against disinvestment of shares in the PSUs. The convention appealed to the public
sector workers all over the country to take positive
lesson from the totally
united, bold and forthright struggles of the workers
of Visakha steel plant,
NALCO (Odisha) and NMDC
against the
proposed disinvestment. The convention resolved to
stoutly oppose any move of
privatisation or disinvestment of PSU shares in any
public sector company in
the country by launching struggles like the ones
mentioned above. The
convention
also took note of how lakhs of central government
employees in the country
staged a massive countrywide strike on December 12,
2012 to demand scrapping of
the PFRDA Bill, stop to contractisation, setting up
of the seventh Pay
Commission and 50 per cent DA merger, among other
things.
RESOLVE TO JOIN FEB STRIKE It was in such a context that the
national
convention of workers ---held at The December 15 Chennai convention of
public sector workers extended full support to this
call of a countrywide
strike and issued an appeal to all permanent and
contract workers in all the
CPSUs, irrespective of their trade union
affiliations, to join the strike and make
it a total success, as a reflection of their total
unity as was demonstrated in
the convention itself. The convention also urged
upon the unions in the PSUs to
submit joint strike notices and conduct joint
massive campaigns as well as programmes
of agitation and propaganda to mobilise the workers
for taking part in the
strike on February 20 and 21, 2013. It may be recalled that in the
preparatory
phase of the last countrywide historic general
strike on February 28, 2012, one
such convention was held at Bangaluru which was
followed by many public sector
industry-wise joint national conventions and jointly
signed strike notices were
submitted to the managements of the respective
CPSUs. Obviously, this time also
the Chennai convention would be followed by many
industry-wise joint conventions
at the national level and submission of joint strike
notices. It is outrageous that the prime
minister,
Dr Manmohan Singh, threw a big challenge to the CPSU
workers on the day the Chennai
convention took place. While the convention resolved
to fight the suicidal policy
of privatisation of CPSUs, on the same day Dt
Manmohan Singh, declared that his
government had decided to “speed up stake sale in
PSUs.” This he said in the course
of his address to the annual general meeting of
FICCI at New Delhi. Further, insofar as utilisation of the
fund
generated from disinvestment is concerned, the
successive governments have been
resorting to deceitful campaigns with colourful and
false promises like “raising
resources for the PSUs,” “improving productivity and
profitability,” “NRF for
assistance to workers (specially women) in
unorganised sector,” “special
employment schemes in backward areas,” etc. However, in the current phase of
intensified attack on public sector, the UPA-2
government has become so
desperate to put the public sector in the service of
the private sector that, without
mincing words in his speech before the bigwigs of
business houses, the prime
minister openly declared that his government would
mobilise funds by selling
out the public sector’s equity in order to address
the fiscal deficit and also
to boost the share market. “Selling equity in large
public sector industries is
a central plank of the government’s plank to bring
down a wide fiscal deficit,”
Manmohan Singh said, adding that “We
will speed up the disinvestment process which will
revive our equity markets.” The
government has thus resorted to selling the family
silver to pay the butler. What
is happening is precisely what the trade unions had
apprehended in very initial
period of disinvestment onslaught. It is such a challenge from the
Manmohan
Singh government that underlines the importance of
the February 2013 strike,
and public sector workers have to meet this
challenge by crowning the proposed
strike with unprecedented success. Failure to rise
to such an occasion is bound
to endanger the public sector entities and their
employees all over the
country. The magnificent success of the Chennai
convention of workers of central public sector
undertakings is a clear
indication of the what a historic strike struggle
the country is poised to
witness on February 20 and 21, 2013.
