People's Democracy

Bengal Chatkal Mazdoor Union Carries

Forward The Struggle

FROM the mid-1920’s the Bengal Chatkal Mazdoor Union (BCMU), affiliated subsequently to the (CITU), has been relentlessly and with a fierce dedication been looking after the interest of the chatkal mazdoors or jute workers.  Jute has been a staple organised industry in Bengal for very many decades. A labour-intensive industry, jute mills also provide the indirect employment to more than 40 lakh jute growers, mostly small and medium kisans and their families.

There are 60 jute mills in Bengal at present. The number was over 100 four decades back.  Since then, the successive union governments have ensured that the synthetic lobby was not disappointed.  Robbed of markets, robbed of central assistance, the jute industry of Bengal nevertheless stands tall in an age of artificial fibres and of globalisation. 

PRODUCTION HAS GONE UP

The basic strength here emanates the very environment-friendly and marketable golden fibre itself, and from the métier that goes to make the jute worker, tenacious, hardy, organised, and willing to struggle for his rights as a trade union activist, fighting under the banner of the BCMU.

The BCMU worker has never neglected production, the myriad of provocations from the mill owners notwithstanding.  A vast number of work days are lost every year, it is important to remember, almost solely due to the intransigency of the management.  Table I will throw light on the situation.

Table I

Source: BCMU 66th Annual Conference

The problem with the management does not merely stem from the fact they are anti-worker and pro-profit.  As CITU leader Dipak Dasgupta puts it, the management of today represents fariahs or jute brokers who have no experience of running the jute mills.  These bunches of nouveux riche, notes Dipak Dasgupta, are utterly contemptuous of the condition of the workers, and would not bother to have a second thought to close down a mill and scoot with the profit. 

PROFIT ORIENTATION

Their only orientation is towards profit, at whatever cost.  They would not buy modern-day machinery, would not improve the environment of the factory, and would spare no thought in transferring profit made to real estate business. Yet the workers toil and continue to produce one tonne of jute material in 32-36 Mandays, fuelling the profits of the management.

A crucial period for the jute industry in Bengal, notes BCMU secretary-elect Gobindo Guha in his report to the 66th annual conference, came during the regime of the anti-worker NDA government when the synthetic lobby had grand-stand domination of the fibre market.  The packaging act itself was to have been watered down in favour of synthetic fibres.

The battle was finally won when the synthetic lobby had subsequently to beat a temporary retreat in the face of the Left TUs movement and the strong protestation of Left MPs within the parliament.

Problems, however, remain, plaguing the jute industry on various scores and issues. Dipak Dasgupta notes that dearness allowances and additional dearness allowances are declared and not given. This was another example of the management flouting with impunity the concerned agreement that it had conceded to implement. Even in mills that have started production-related wages, such steps are too often the weapon of choice of the management.

PENDING ISSUES

ESI and PF are not allowed to the jute workers.  Casual/contract workers are put in place even where perennial jobs are concerned.  Women workers are put to torture and thumbscrews are tightened as they are made to go without PF, gratuity, and ESI all the time.  Forced retirement is at age 55.  Persons who are employed in place of retired workers, men and women, are paid but 230 per cent of the wages that should be paid.  This fuels the profit trove further.

The workers live in extremely unsanitary conditions in the hutments called residential quarters.  Water supply is uncertain.  The hutments look ready to fall apart. 

Whenever the workers protest and launch movement in defence of hard-earned rights. Lock-outs are clamped down.  Tri-partite meetings are held but after some time, the management would choose to ignore the agreements.  As the secretarial report puts it, it would be an impossibility to improve the condition of the jute industry if there is no improvement in industrial relations here.

Organisationally, the BCMU leadership is very self-critical. The report notes that of the 2.5 lakh-odd jute workers, just 32,165 (i.e., just over 80,000) are affiliated to BCMU.  The leadership believes that a planned drive is necessary to increase the membership of BCMU, thus strengthening the jute workers movement itself. 

DEMOCRATIC FUNCTIONING

The leadership has also emphasised further on the ongoing improvement of the democratic functioning of the TUs.  The task of politicisation of the jute workers too must be attached topmost priority.  This is especially important in view of the fact that bulks of the chatkal mazdoors come from neighbouring states and those states have a very weak base of democratic movements.  The reason why these mazdoors become TU members is principally economic since they feel that as a part of the BCMU membership they stand a better chance during negotiation for wages and other benefits like PF, ESI etc. 

The BCMU also called for a strengthening of the social programmes that would include functional literacy, working class culture, and health awareness including medical checking.  The BCMU looks to the days ahead when it would be even better equipped than at the present moment to carry forward the chatkal mazdoor movement to newer heights. The BCMU has decided to go in a big way for a united movement of the jute workers.  November will see the BCMU commencing an unremitting movement to wrest its legitimate demands from the management and the union government.

835 delegates attended the 66th conference of the BCMU and 50 of them took part in the deliberations. Mohd Amin was re-elected president.  Gobindo Guha was re-elected general secretary.  Jagadish Das is the working president.  Nemai Samanta is the organisational secretary.  Dilip Dasgupta is the treasurer.

The BCMU conference was addressed among others by CITU all-India general secretary Chittabrata Majumdar, CITU leader Mohd Amin (who presided), CITU Bengal general secretary Kali Ghosh, Bengal Left Front government’s labour minister Mrinal Banerjee, and CITU state secretary Dipak Dasgupta.