MAHARASHTRA

 TUs Call For Rejecting Labour Commission Report

 P R Krishnan

 ORGANISED by the Trade Unions Joint Action Committee, a largely attended meeting in Mumbai, October 4, was of the unanimous view that the trade unions cannot but reject the report of the second National Commission on Labour. For, chaired by former labour minister Ravindra Verma, the committee has shown it is thoroughly anti-labour and fully supports the Vajpayee government’s globalisation policies. “Since the recommendations are aiming at consolidation of the capitalist system by perpetration of the exploitation of labour, the report has to be opposed tooth and nail,” observed the leaders who addressed the gathering.

The meeting said that despite some references and recommendations that may deceptively appear progressive, the report is basically anti-people and anti-working class. Therefore, despite some sugary recommendations for the solace of unorganised workers and a few regarding social welfare measures, if the major changes proposed are implemented, it will take away the existing rights of the working class, which they have acquired through struggles and sacrifices. That, therefore, the report has to be rejected lock, stock and barrel was the overwhelming view at the meet.

The meeting’s venue was the Central Railway Workshop’s canteen hall at Matunga in central Mumbai. The presidium that conducted it consisting of R G Karnik (state government employees), K L Bajaj (CITU), G V Chitnis (AITUC), Dada Samant (Kamgar Aghadi), P R Menon (NRMU), Suryakant Bagal (HMS), Yeshwant Chavan (Sarva Shramik Sanghatana), Suresh Dhopeswarkar (AIBEA) and Jayant Chavan (SSS).

Papers with a deep analysis of the conmmission’s final conclusions and recommendations were presented at the meeting. They were by P R Krishnan (CITU), Dada Samant (Kamgar Aghadi), Y G Joshi (NRMU), A D Golandaz (MSES), M A Patil (Sarvasramikh Sanghatana) and N Vasudevan (Trade Union Solidarity Committee). All the papers pointedly stressed the neo-capitalist, anti-working class nature of the report.

The meeting decided to take out a massive protest morcha to and demonstration at Azad Maidan on October 28, under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee. At the rally, the committee is likely to give a call for statewide protest action against the report.