People's Democracy

DUJ Demands New Wage Board

THE Foundation Day and May Day meeting of the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) on  the night of April 30 expressed solidarity with the working class in their fight against the increasing anti-worker policies being pursued by the central and many state governments. On the newspaper front, the union called for an end to the rampant jungle law in the newspaper industry and demanded immediate constitution of the wage board as wage revision was long overdue.

The declaration adopted in this meeting expressed serious concern at the increasing menace of hiring of journalists on contract basis, making them bonded by contracts. All this was aimed at, the declaration  noted, stifling whatever remains of the free press. To prevent this from happening, the DUJ suggested that the Wage Board terms of reference should also include, apart from wage fixation, the concrete terms and conditions of employment of journalists. 

Speaking on the occasion, the DUJ president S K Pande and general secretary Javed Faridi suggested that the press be on guard against the shades of the Emergency and the devaluation of journalism through increasing pressures both from the market and the government.

The meeting noted that the plight of journalists was worsening  in all media, the print  and the electronic and called for a united front of resistance with press workers and on common issues with the working class, rather than just government tomtomming, petitioning or playing just adversary. The support and opposition should be on issues, the speakers stressed.

To begin with, it called for a front with the Delhi State Newspaper Employees Federation (DSNEF) and other fraternal bodies to fight for rights of workers in the newspaper industry rather than just depending on the sweet will of the government or select newspaper barons.

Members regretted that the Vajpayee government was hell bent on denying a new wage board to the newspaper industry. The union labour minister Sahib Singh Verma  was under a variety of pressures to oppose wage revision, the speakers said.

The meeting noted that while workers of publications, Patriot and Link, founded by veteran freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali, were starving on the roads – some had even expired – the government was sleeping. The DUJ took note of the fact that journalists on professional duty were being targeted in few places and called upon the Election Commission to ensure protection of newspersons during the remaining part of the polls.