BALCO Workers Serve Notice

Ardendhu Dakshi

THOUGH it was a token one-day protest strike, the workers of Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) have clearly served notice to the government of India: “Stop selling the remaining 49 per cent government equity to Sterlite; Re-nationalise BALCO forthwith without delay.”

On July 22, 2004, nearly 13,000 regular and contractors’ workers, both in the plant and Bauxite mines - struck work, making the strike a total success. The attempts made by the company management, with the help of the INTUC union and by inducting outside workers, to break the strike or the morale of the workers totally failed. They also demand that a parliamentary committee should investigate the whole matter of disinvestment of BALCO and the truth should be out about the huge corruption and the guilty should be punished immediately.

BALCO has become famous. One for the treachery of Arun Shourie and company in the BJP government who sold it at throwaway price to the once blacklisted Sterlite company; and secondly for the heroic 67 day-long strike by the workers to undo the sell-out which ultimately failed because of another treachery by the Ajit Jogi government and the INTUC leadership.

The workers united under BALCO Bachao Sanyukt Abhiyan Samity, which comprised CITU, AITUC, HMS and BMS local units, and ran a campaign to highlight the huge corruption involved in the sell out, the incapabilities and failures of Sterlite company, the bogus nature of the argument that BALCO as a public sector unit was incapable of expansion and modernisation and so on. However, the campaign could not move the then NDA government or the Supreme Court.

Today, everything is being proved right. The deep, dirty level of corruption of Arun Shourie is being exposed daily as in the cases of Centaur Hotel, Santacruz and now Centaur Hotel, Juhu. Sterlite’s incompetency can easily be understood from the fact that they failed to run the Profiles and Extrusions unit; operation of cells has gone down and quality has fallen. The workers and officers also suffered at the hands of Sterlite management through worst form of humiliation, attack, forced voluntary retirement, loss of wage, earnings, withdrawal of medical, LTC and other facilities in the hands of Sterlite.

It is worth to mention that Sunderlal Patwa, the then union minister of state for mines had assured the workers in writing that there would be:

a)   No retrenchment/transfers

b)   No change in service conditions

c)   No closure of any establishment/unit of the company at their sweet will

d)   Offering of voluntary retirement from time to time on terms that are not in any manner less favourable than the VR scheme offered by the company and

The apex court was satisfied with the existing laws, which adequately protect workers’ interest, and no decision affecting a huge body of workers can be taken without prior consent of the state government.

But in effect the workers have been reduced to slaves, even the contractor workers have been attacked and replaced by workers with less than half the wage and no benefits.

REALISING EXPERIENCE

The CITU union did not sign the agreement when the 67 days strike was withdrawn though all other unions did. Now, after three years, all the operating unions – excepting INTUC – again jointly went for the strike on July 22, 2004 because the situation has become grave and unbearable.

Sterlite now wants to buy the remaining 49 per cent of shares from the government of India. The workers are totally against this move. The fact that they have been reduced to slaves even when the government of India representatives are on the board makes them fear that if BALCO is fully privatised then they will be simply thrown out.

The Vajpayee government knew about the goings on in the BALCO after the disinvestment and a committee (Chandramouli Committee) was appointed for a study on the plight of the workers. The BJP government deliberately suppressed both the CAG report on valuation of BALCO before disinvestment and the Chandramouli Committee’s report.

The arrogance of Sterlite Company has no limit. They violated the directives on service conditions of workers; they flout all labour laws, Factories Act, environmental rules, and all canons of social justice. There is no other alternative but to strike back. That’s why the July 22 token strike is only the first step.  The BALCO workers and the common people around Korba have decided resolutely to fight the atrocities of Sterlite company and stop the proposed sale of 49 per cent remaining share held by the central government to M/s Sterlite & Co.