People's Democracy

  Forward To Contrywide General Strike on Sept 29

A LARGELY attended national convention of trade unions held at the Mavlankar Auditorium in New Delhi on July 9, 2005 chalked out action programme, culminating in a countrywide general strike on September 29, 2005. The convention unanimously adopted a declaration containing a 16-point charter of demands (see box).

The Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions, comprising seven central trade union organisations viz. AITUC, AICCTU, CITU, HMS, TUCC, UTUC and UTUC-LS and all India Federations/Associations of employees and workers in bank, insurance, railways, central and state government offices/departments, telecom, postal, defence, petroleum, civil aviation and other sectors had called the national convention. Over 1600 delegates representing the constituents of the sponsoring committee and scores of independent unions attended the convention, and the Mavlankar Auditorium and the adjoining lawns were overflowing, reflecting the enthusiastic response to the call for immediate action.

The proceedings of the national convention were steered by a presidium comprising M.K.Pandhe (CITU), Amarjeet Kaur (AITUC) A D Nagpal (HMS), N N Thomas (AICCTU), Nripen Chatterjee (TUCC) Rajesh Kumar Raju (UTUC) Shambhu Nath Nayak (UTUC-LS) and others.

M K Pandhe, while placing the draft declaration and the action programme, pointed out that the UPA government at the centre had not taken any worthwhile measures to implement the pro-people commitments made in the National Common Minimum Programme; instead it has been moving fast in the direction of expediting the anti-people reforms measures. The working class cannot countenance such a callous attitude of the government. Moreover, the hard-earned rights of the workers are increasingly targeted for attacks. Hence the imminent need for the workers to take to the streets and stage massivie protest actions including strike.

Endorsing the declaration and the call for strike, Chittabrata Majumdar, general secretary, CITU, emphasised the need to take the campaign on the issues and demands to the people in both rural and urban India. He ridiculed the spurious plea of ‘resource crunch’ by the government and pointed to over Rs 1 lakh crore of tax arrears mostly by high-end taxpayers and corporate sector and an equal amount owed by the same lobby to the nationalised banks, which are termed as non-performing assets. He cited lack of political will as the source of inaction to recover these outstandings and step up the tax-GDP ratio.

Gurudas Dasgupta (AITUC), Umraomal Purohit (HMS), Swapan Mukherjee (AICCTU),  Shayam Charan Gaur (TUCC), Aboni Roy (UTUC), Krishna Chakroboty (UTUC-LS), J P Chaube (AIRF), C H Venkatachalam (Banks), S K Vyas (central government employees’ confederation), Sukomal Sen (state government employees federation) K Venugopal (Insurance), Dada Samant (TU JAC, Mumbai), Chandran Pillai (Postal) V A N Namboodri (Telecom), C Kumar (Defence) Michel Fernades (JAC, Bangalore) D P Dubey (FMRAI), Upadhyaya (GIC), Uniyal (Oil) and  Santhanam (Airport authority) addressed the convention and pledged full support to the action programme.

Several organisations, whose leaders attended the convention, gave in writing to the presidium their unstinted support to the call for action. The national convention has sounded the bugle. The working people of the country are on march towards a countrywide strike on September 29, to express their total resentment with the disastrous pursuit of anti-labour economic policies of liberalisation and privatisation.

Following is the full text of the declaration adopted by the national convention:

DECLARATION

This National Convention of Trade Unions held in New Delhi on July 9, 2005, massively participated by the representatives of the constituents of the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions, while taking stock of the present challenges that confront the working people of India, adopts this declaration.

The working people of India had welcomed the outcome of the general elections 2004, which resulted in the ouster of the National Democratic Alliance government, whose track record in office had been disastrous for all sections of the Indian society including the working people, except the vastly affluent few.

The United Progressive Alliance government assumed office at the centre in May 2004, in the backdrop of the utter failure of the BJP-led NDA government to tackle the basic problems of the country during its nearly six years rule; its total inability to contain recession, push up rate of investment, promote employment, ensure poverty alleviation, step up higher growth and economic development benefiting the common people; its inability even to provide food security to the hungry millions. It had instead given the multinationals substantial access to domestic savings, bringing about massive casualisation of work force and weakened the ability of the state to effectively intervene in the economy in favour of the vast majority of people who are close to destitution.

The trade union movement in the country denounced the Supreme Court pronouncement against the right to strike and demanded that the central government take appropriate steps to negate the pernicious impact of the said judgement of the Supreme Court.

During the past several years, the central trade unions and independent unions and federations in the country, had unitedly been on the move, launching campaigns and sustained struggles throughout the country and in different sectors, against these policies.

In this backdrop, the working people expected the UPA government to set out to act without any delay and carry out the tasks of giving immediate relief to the distressed working masses of the country. They also looked forward to the UPA government embarking on an exercise to bring about a pro-people shift in the economic policies.

The UPA government adopted a National Common Minimum Programme, which despite its manifest pro-reform stance did contain commitments to implement certain pro-people measures. But, the track record of the UPA government, in the last fourteen months in office, has rather been disappointing.

Though the UPA government had committed firmly ‘that labour-management relations in our country must be marked by consultations, cooperation and consensus, not confrontation’ and to actively pursue ‘tripartite consultations with trade unions and industry on all proposals concerning them’, several unilateral and arbitrary moves, which are of serious concern to the working people, had been initiated without any consultation whatsoever with the trade unions.

The apex tripartite forum in the country viz. the India Labour Conference had not been convened ever since the UPA government assumed office.

The promise that the UPA administration will enact a comprehensive legislation to guarantee minimum wage and to extend social protection to the vast multitude of agricultural labourers, had remained a dead letter.

Though the government had been indulging in patronising phrase mongering on ensuring the welfare and well being of workers in the unorganised sector, it has failed to respond to the unanimous demand of all the central trade unions to legislate the Unorganised Sector Workers Bill, duly incorporating the suggested improvements.

The government had been harping on reversing the phenomenon of jobless growth and that the proposed Employment Guarantee legislation would be the “vehicle for providing income security to the poorest sections of society”. But the fact remains that the Bill introduced and pending with the standing committee of parliament is a much diluted version of the draft of the National Advisory Council and just a mockery of the CMP commitment even.

Despite the professed commitment to ‘a strong and effective public sector’ and that ‘the profit-making companies will not be privatised’, the government has already started the process of privatisation of profit-making PSUs through disinvestment moves. It has virtually redefined the very concept of public sector from ‘wholly owned’ to ‘51 per cent holding’ by the government. The attempt by the finance minister to justify such moves as necessary for mobilising resources for social sector expenditure and for rehabilitation of sick PSUs is reprehensible. It indicates a mindset to abdicate the government responsibility for raising resources, through budgetary and taxation measures, to finance schemes aimed at welfare of the people.

Ever since the UPA government assumed office, it has imposed burdens on the common people by increasing the prices of petroleum products on four occasions. Repeated pleas to reduce the excise duty on oil, drop the additional road cess of 50 paise and take similar other measures in order to avert the increased burden on the people went unheeded.

Recently, the labour ministry in a press a release indicated “readiness to raise exemption limit for establishments seeking government permission for retrenchment/lay off from employing 100 employees to 300 employees under the ID Act”. Such a move will bring more than 90 per cent of the establishments under the ‘hire and fire regime’. This is resurrecting the much-resented recommendation from the discredited report of the Second National Commission on Labour! Here again, the CMP commitment to ‘reject automatic hire and fire regime’ and to exclude “the Industrial Dispute Act from the labour laws that will be re-examined and procedures harmonised and streamlined” is merrily reneged!

In the name of dismantling ‘Inspector Raj’, the government has virtually abandoned its responsibility to enforce various labour legislations and the employers have been allowed to trample every rule and law severely hurting the interests of the workers. Proliferation of contracting, sub-contracting and outsourcing has reached such dimensions that the threat of totally obliterating permanency and security of jobs looms large before the working people. The ban on recruitment in government jobs continues for years with no end and downsizing of work force has become the ‘mantra’ of the 21st century India!  All these are leading to deterioration in the quality of employment.

There has been an alarming increase in the atrocities against women throughout the country. The Supreme Court had, as far back as August 1997, made recommendations and issued guidelines for a legislation to protect women workers from sexual harassment at work places. This is yet to receive the attention of the government.

The government is yet to initiate any tangible move to ensure the right to strike undoing the Supreme Court verdict.

Even long after expiry of the period of operation of the Fifth Pay Commission, the government is stubbornly refusing to constitute the Sixth Pay Commission, overturning the specific recommendation of the Fifth Pay Commission.

The present provisions in the Bonus Act, with the income ceilings for eligibility and calculation of Bonus, have virtually turned out an overwhelming majority of workers, almost the entire organised sector, outside the purview of the Bonus Act. Yet, the government is in no mood to amend the legislation.

The government resorted to an ordinance to legislate setting up a Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority to establish regulate and develop pension funds under the New Pension System, which is outright privatising of pension funds and diverting the contributions to the speculative stock markets. Furthermore, the UPA finance minister has announced in the budget 2005-06 opening of the ‘pension sector’ for FDI, along with retail trade and mining sectors!

The government proceeded to reduce the interest rate on Employees Provident Fund by resorting to decision by majority in the Central Board of Trustees. Though the prime minister subsequently intervened to restore the rate to 9.5. per cent, that assurance is also given a short shrift by dipping into the Special Reserve Fund earmarked for settlement of Provident Fund dues of defaulting employers of closed establishments. The government is perpetuating the interest rate reduction down to 8 per cent on Special Deposit Scheme (SDS), GPF, CMPF, PPF, Small Savings etc.

The Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 is the only defined benefit pension scheme for non-governmental employees and workers. The Ministry of Labour has initiated moves aimed at reducing the benefit package under the Scheme, against the aspirations of the workers for improved benefits.

The government is wide opening the doors for the aggressive influx of foreign investors, who are keen on taking over all sectors of the economy. Civil aviation, telecommunication, insurance, banking et al have been the targeted. The united voice of opposition to the arbitrary pronouncements on mega merger of public sector banks by the entire work force in the industry is sought to be brushed aside. Even the production units in defence sector are slated for privatisation through the corporatisation route. The glib talk of making every effort to modernise and restructure sick public sector companies and revive sick industry has remained an empty word.

The government has no hesitation in handing over the public utilities and services, including drinking water, to private and foreign hands for the plunder of profit. The Public Distribution System in the country today leaves much to be desired. But, the government in the name of ‘targeting subsidies’ is further weakening this only measure aimed to reach some succour to the impoverished and destitute families in both the urban and rural areas.

The review of the Electricity Act, 2003 is an unkept promise and the government has arbitrarily announced a National Electricity Policy in February 2005. The prescriptions for ‘unbundling’ of the State Electricity Boards, eliminate subsidies, including cross subsidy, leading to deprivation of energy to rural areas remain intact with just a revised deadline.

Rural India, with intensification of poverty, misery, debt burden, starvation deaths and suicides is a picture of total distress, crying for justice. The urgent need to implement meaningful land reform measures is not on the agenda of government. On the contrary, contract farming and corporatisation of agriculture are being pursued vigorously. The promised public investment for agriculture and irrigation are yet to materialise and institutional credit is unavailable to the vast majority of poor and middle peasants.

While the government is ever ready to counter every genuine demand of the working people and other masses with a spurious plea of lack of resources, there is no political will to crack the whip on tax defaults, black money, corporate debt default to banks and other financial institutions. There is a shocking revelation that a sum of Rs 45,000 crore of Non Performing Assets (read loan defaults) had been written off by the banking sector in recent years!

The working people and toiling masses of the country cannot countenance this all-round drift towards disaster.  (INN)