People's Democracy

TRADE union delegation from Mumbai had 3 days of hectic activities in Delhi on November 20, 21 and 22. The objective of the delegations’s visit was to meet the top leaders of political parties in the capital and explain to them the anti-working class features of the proposed bills in parliament. The industrialists-sponsored amendments are to be effected in the Industrial Disputes Acts 1947 and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act. No sooner these contemplated changed become the law, the working class will become defenceless and the day of "hire and fire" will start. It was to mobilise support and to safeguard the interest of the working class that the trade union team visited Delhi. This team was a part of the long-drawn out plan of actions chalked out by the Mumbai based Trade Unions Joint Action Committee which has organised a series of actions in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra against the anti-people policies of the BJP-led central government. These actions included rallies, dharanas, conventions and the April 25 Maharashtra bandh.

The Mumbai delegation, accordingly, met the opposition leader and Congress president Smt Sonia Gandhi and the Congress parliamentary party deputy leader Shivraj Patil. Other leaders whom the trade union leaders met were CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, CPI(M) parliamentary party leader Somnath Chatterjee, Nationalist Congress party president Sharad Pawar, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentary party leader Dr Raghunandan Prasad Singh.

The trade union delegation from Mumbai comprised K L Bajaj (CITU), Dada Samant (Kamgar Aghadi), Yashwant Chavan (Sarva Sramik Sangh), A D Golandas (AITUC) and N Vasudevan (Trade Union Solidarity Committee). Jeebon Roy, MP and CITU secretary, joined his Mumbai colleagues from Delhi and rendered assistance to the delegation.

The delegation pointed out to the party leaders that the National Democratic Alliance government is planning to change the basic structure of labour and indsutrial laws at the instance of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and multinational corporations and as desired by the big business houses in India. The amendments proposed are not only anti-working class but anti-national. The trade union leaders therefore urged upon them to oppose the changes in parliament.

The party leaders were receptive to the suggestions made by the trade union delegation and assured them that their parties are opposed to the proposed alterations in the labour legislations. Their MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will therefore stoutly oppose any such amendments. So far as the Shiv Sena is concerned, its leader Uddhav Thakare has already declared opposition to the proposed changes. Therefore the delegation had no meeting with the Sena leaders in Delhi.

It was, however, sad that despite the HMKP being a constituent of the Trade Union Joint Action Committee in Mumbai and in spite of many attempts, the delegation could not meet George Fernandes. Fernandes, the erstwhile trade union leader who got elected to Lok Sabha for the first time from Mumbai and who is presently the defence minister in the Vajpayee cabinet, was so busy that he could spare no time to meet the delegation. Similarly, though the BMS had opposed the proposed amendments in labour legislations by its participation in the April 25 Maharashtra bandh and several other action programmes, BJP president Jana Krishnamurthy too could find no time to meet the trade union delegation despite the request for an audience. The delegation tried its best to meet the parliamentary party leaders of other parties like the TDP, DMK, Trinamul Congress, AIDMK, Tamil Manila Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Janata Dal (Secular),and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP), but in vain. The trade union leaders were therefore left with no alternative but to give their representation to the offices of these parties in Delhi. Their stand on these vital issues will thus be known only when the government tables the bills in parliament.