People's Democracy(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
Vol.
XXVII
No. 15 April 13, 2003 |
OPPOSING PRIVATISATION MOVE
HPCL-BPCL
Workers Strike
Swadesh
Dev Roye
THE magnificent success
of the three day countrywide strike
by the total workforce of the BPCL and HPCL on March 25-27 3 has added a new
dimension to the anti-privatisation movement in the country. The strike has
totally rejected the fallacious claim of Arun Shourie, the disinvestment
minister, that the workers of the oil PSUs are not against privatisation. The
depth and sweep of the strike has clearly demonstrated the determination of the
oil sector workers to fight the move to privatise the oil PSUs. Further, the apprehension within the trade union movement
about the possibility of realisation of total unity of the trade unions in the
oil sector and launch of united strike action has been fully disproved by the
oil workers. And yet another vital
highlight of the strike is the resolve of the oil sector workers to widen the
unity and carry forward the fight to stop privatisation of the oil PSUs.
The strike was jointly
called by the 26 trade unions functioning in the BPCL and HPCL refineries and
the entire marketing network throughout the country under the banner of National
United Forum Against Privatisation of OIL PSUs. The Kochi Refineries
Limited (KRL), Kochi also participated in the strike. The Indian Oil Shramik
Union (CITU), Kolkata observed a day’s solidarity strike on March 26,
throughout the east and northern states. The CITU unions in the refineries in
Digboi and Numaligarh, Assam, also conducted agitional programmes in support of
the strike. The unions which took part in the strike included those affiliated
with the AITUC, CITU, a section of INTUC, Maharashtra General Kamgar Union (of
late Dr Dutta Samant fame), trade unions of the Shiv Sena and many unaffiliated
unions with large followings in the refineries and marketing departments.
THE IMPACT
The
strike was a spectacular success. Alongwith the BPCL refinery, Mumbai, HPCL
refineries in Mumbai and Visakhapatnam and KRL refinery at Kochi, the four
regional marketing networks based at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai and the
corporate headquarters of both the oil PSUs at Mumbai also observed the strike.
The bottling plants of the two oil PSUs all over the country were almost
completely shut due to the strike. It is noteworthy that the management adopted
nefarious design to frighten and demoralise the workers through heavy deployment
of territorial army, intimidating measures like obtaining
ex-parte court orders prohibiting strike, issuing notice of alleged
contempt of court to the leaders, threatening dismissal from services etc, but
totally failed to demoralise the workers and foil the strike. The success of the
strike in the different regions of the country was as noted below.
In
the Northern Region consisting of the
states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, UttarakKhand, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu
& Kashmir, the strike has been cent percent successful. Here the unions
affiliated with the AITUC and the CITU functioning in both the companies and the
sole independent union functioning in the HPC joined hands to bring the HPCL,
BPCL workers of the region on the street during all the three days of the
strike.
In
the Eastern Region consisting of the
states of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Tripura and other North-Eastern
states, the success rate of the strike has also been grand. A distinct feature
of this region relating to the strike is the participation of the INTUC union in
the strike. The Kolkata office of both the companies wore a deserted look. There
were no activities in the depots and installations throughout the region.
In
the Southern Region consisting of the
states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the strike was a
reverberating success. In the offices, depots and installations all over the
region all the workers participated in the strike. The KRL refinery, Kochi witnessed partial strike under the
leadership of CITU in solidarity on all the three days.
As per reports, in Kerala the retail outlets of
both BPCL and HPCL had gone dry.
In
the Western Region consisting of the
states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh & Goa, the
situation is different from that in the other three regions due to various
factors. This region has got the highest refining capacity of HPCL and BPCL and
also the largest marketing network. Mumbai is also the corporate headquarters of
BPCL and HPCL. Large number of unions with different affiliations is functioning
in the region. Thus the most widespread unity composing of the trade unions
affiliated to AITUC, CITU, INTUC, Shiv Sena, Maharashtra General Kamgar Union
and the unaffiliated unions has been forged in the region. As already mentioned,
while in the BPCL Mumbai refinery the strike was complete, in the HPC refinery
the strike was not cent percent success due to the opposition of INTUC union. On
the other hand, in the marketing division in the region, the strike was more
successful in HPCL compared to that in the BPCL marketing set-up. Both the
corporate offices in Mumbai also witnessed good strike.
STRIKING
WORKERS
On
the first day of the strike the striking workers in Mumbai organised a grand
march to the Mumbai residence of Ram Naik, union minister of petroleum &
natural gas. The march was joined by more than 2000 striking workers. The CITU
affiliated Contractor Workers Union in BPCL and HPCL, Chembur, Mumbai also
staged demonstration in support of the strike. The last day of the strike was
marked by huge demonstrations of the striking workers at the major centers –
Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi etc. Around 5000 workers from the refineries and
marketing set-ups of both the companies participated in a gigantic demonstration
at the BPCL refinery gate in Mumbai. The leaders of different affiliations
including K.L.Bajaj and Vivek Monterio (CITU), Sukumar Damle (AITUC), Dada
Samant (Kamgar Aghadi), Bhai Jagtap (INTUC), Chandrakanth Dalvi (an Independent
Union), Suryakanth Dalvi (Shiv Sena MLA) addressed the demonstrators. After the
demonstration the workers went in a procession and at the end burnt the effigy
of Arun Shourie.
In
Delhi the workers from all the offices, depots and installations of BPCL and
HPCL participated in a big demonstration at the Jantar Mantar Park, New Delhi.
Apart from Basudev Acharya, Sunil Khan and Ms Chandrakala Pandey, all MPs
of the CPI(M), Y D. Sharma (vice-president AITUC) and Swadesh Dev Roye
(secretary, CITU), Dr Iswar Singh (general secretary of an independent union in
HPCL, Northern Region), Mamraj Singh and Kharbanda of AITUC and Ramashnakar
Prasad Singh of CITU also addressed the demonstrators. Meetings and
demonstrations were organised in other parts of the country as well.
THE LONGDRAWN
It
is important to note that the majority of the unions of HPCL and
BPCL workers with various affiliations were brought to the platform of
struggles through an almost yearlong persuasion and initiative by the CITU. All
the unions, many of which were independent or with other affiliations have been
approached again and again, both separately and collectively for united
countrywide struggles. A long process of joint consultations, all-India
convention, regional conventions, joint representation to prime minister etc all
at the initiative of the CITU, ultimately led to the success of the three-day strike action
in HPCL, BPCL & KRL. In this very process of struggles, the National
United Forum Against Privatisation of Oil-PSUs has been formed.
That
the government did not pay any heed to the campaign opposing privatszation is
evident from the fact that the memorandum submitted to the prime minister
jointly by the trade unions was not even acknowledged. The memorandum noted,
“The oil and petroleum sector is the most efficient and highest profit-making
sector amongst the entire CPSUs in the country. Out of the top ten profit making
CPSUs, five are from oil and petroleum sector alone. During the year 2001-2002
the oil PSUs recorded profit after tax of Rs 12, 749.53 crore against the paid
up capital of Rs 5, 204.00 crore
“The net profit earned by BPCL in the year 2001-2002
is Rs.835.72 crore and dividend paid to the central government is Rs.330.00
crore and in HPCL, the net profit earned and dividend paid are Rs.788.00 crore
and Rs.340.00 crore respectively. HPCL was nationalised at an acquisition cost
of Rs.49.00 crore against the company’s then share capital plus free reserves
of Rs 16.80 crore. Since nationalisation, HPCL has generated huge internal
resources and has invested more than Rs 9,000.0 crore. The present share capital
and free reserves of the company are little less than Rs.6,000.00 crore. The
current assets value of the oil PSU is estimated at Rs 20,000.00 crore. It is
important to note that HPCL and BPCL together own more than 9,000 petrol pumps
situated at prime locations throughout the country.”
The
long-drawn and meticulously planned joint campaign and the patience employed in
conducting the agitation and propaganda in a gradually ascending order has
definitely contributed in making the strike a huge success.
The massive countrywide strike by the HPCL and BPCL workers reflects the
firm determination by the oil and petroleum workers to resist the anti-national
conspiracy to handover the public sector oil industries to monopoly capital both
Indian and Foreign.
Emboldened
by the more than expected success of the strike, the confidence and unity of the
oil sector workers has strengthened and provided a big moral boost in the fight
against privatisation. Further, in the absence of any positive response from the
government even after the 3-day successful countrywide strike, the workers have
no other go but to intensify the struggles against the move of privatisation.
It
is shocking to note that according to report, Reliance Industries, Shell, Essar
Group, ChevronTexaco, Petronas, Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum have responded
the formal expressions of interest for HPCL’s strategic sale of the majority
equity. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has been appointed the
global advisor for the HPCL sale.
It
was in the above background, the National
United Forum Against Privatisation of
Oil PSUs had its meeting at Mumbai on April 5. The meeting was attended by
the representatives of all the 26 unions. It
took stock of the post-strike situation and decided to carry forward the struggles against the
privatsation move. As a first step
towards the next phases of the anti-privatisation struggles, the forum has fixed
up a national convention of the workers of the entire public sector oil and
petroleum industries of the country in Mumbai on April 27. The forum has decided
to request all the trade unions functioning in ONGC, IOC, IOC-(AOD), GAIL, OIL,
BRPL, NRL, KRL IBP, IOBL etc to participate in the convention.
The preparation for the convention is going on in full swing. The
convention is slated to adopt a concrete programme of action against oil PSUs
privatisation move of the government,
expectedly involving the entire oil sector workers in the public sector.