LABOUR SNIPPETS – APRIL 2024
- Lekha
Almond Workers Protest in Karawal Nagar, Delhi
Workers’ Convention
Resolves to Vote Out the BJP!
Advisory for Employers to
Promote Women Workforce Participation:
No Jobs / Poor Jobs:
The ILO Report on Education and Employment
A Worrying Picture
- Akash Bhattacharya
14th April 2024
133rd Birth Anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar
The May Day Call of AICCTU!
The Workers Manifesto – 2024
More than 2 lakh Anganwadi workers of Maharashtra observed a strike for 54 days in the month of February 2024. The strike was a culmination of consistent movement of Anganwadi workers for dignified honorarium and other working class rights like guarantee of pension and gratuity.
Gearing Up Working Class against Corporate Loot and Rampant Contractualisation
With a 13-point demand, thousands of mid-day meal workers working in schools under the banner of Bihar State School Mid-day Meal Workers Union (affiliated to AICCTU) held a protest during the on-going session of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The workers, who put forth their demands for their socioeconomic and legal rights, demanded that the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar increase their honorarium to Rs. 10,000 per month, to provide permanent jobs, among other demands.
The 3rd all India conference of the All India Municipal and Sanitation Workers was held on 3 – 4 February 2024 in Bengaluru. Around 150 delegates from 11 states of the country like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Delhi participated in the conference.
Thousands of scheme workers, including ASHA, anganwadi, mid-day meal, mamta, courier and other scheme workers, responded to the national call for rural bandh and sectoral strike on February 16th, 2024.
UP Invokes ESMA for Six Months
Waqeel Hasan was a part of the team of 12 workers who rescued the 41 entrapped workers in Uttarakhand’s Silkyara Tunnel in November last year. He along with his associates worked tirelessly to save fellow workers who were trapped when the tunnel collapsed. After returning from the rescue operation he said that they took the risk for their fellow workers, it was a duty to the nation that they served.
Crimes Against Humanity: Israel's Horrific Actions in Gaza
At a time of increasing precarity, traditional trade unionizing strategies must evolve to meet new challenges. While precarity is not new by any means, the systematization and entrenchment of precarious labour through all power structures and the steady decline of the permanent worker base necessitates broad-based and innovative unionizing strategy.
On 16 February 2024, Industrial / Sectoral Strike and Gramin Bharat Bandh (Rural Strike) called by the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) was successful with the enthusiastic participation of workers, farmers and agricultural labourers across the country. The toiling masses of the country resorted to various actions including protests, marches and picketing rejecting the Modi regime’s anti-people policies.
The 10th National conference of TUCI (Trade Union Centre of India) led by Comrade Sanjay Singhvi was held at Chennai from 15 – 17 December 2023.
The AICCTU unit in the Peenya Industrial Area of Bangalore unveiled a workers' paper named "Karmikara Kidi (The Spark of Workers)" in a meeting in December 2023. This paper was inaugurated by the workers of Yazaki movement, marking the one-year anniversary of its inception. Yazaki workers struggle resulted in a partial victory.
The Call of the Conference is to Overthrow the Modi led BJP Regime!
On December 10, 2023, the Pension Human Rights Grand rally that took place in Patna, the capital of Bihar, witnessed enthusiastic participation from thousands demanding the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).
Anganwadi workers of Maharashtra have started an indefinite strike from 4th December demanding monthly salary, pension, other rights of workers and proper functioning of the ICDS system. The strike is going on under the leadership of Maharashtra State Anganwadi Workers Kriti Samiti. AICCTU affiliated Pre-Primary Sevaki Anganwadi Workers Federation has participated in the strike in Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Yavatmal districts.
Israel’s proposition to ‘import’ Indian workers is akin to indentured slavery!
The Indian working class must rebuff all such attempts!
Nearly 90 percent of the world's 67 million domestic workers, majority of them being women, do not even have any semblance of social security coverage (ILO) and their work is undervalued and unprotected.
The present article aims to strike at the various ways in which the Management creates industrial disputes against workmen, avoids negotiations, and finds ways around facing labour laws.
2023 began with a bigger assembly of workers and called for waves and waves of struggles of workers. 2024 shall begin with a call to overthrow the disastrous BJP regime from the echelons of power in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
TANTEA is a tea estate in Valparai of Nilgiri Hills, owned by the Tamil Nadu state government. The workers of this estate have been demanding dignified working conditions and increase in wages. AICCTU has formed a union in TANTEA, mainly of women involved in plucking tea leaves, to raise the issue of rights of workers who toil to keep the estate running.
The 5th State Conference of AICCTU Jharkhand concluded with a resolve to defeat the anti-worker Modi government in the upcoming general elections. The conference was held in Kathara, Bermo. The conference hall was named after Comrade Mohan Prasad and the stage was named after Comrade Bhaiya Lal Besra and Comrade Laxman Bediya.
Bangladesh's garment industry is the backbone of the country's economy, employing millions of people and generating billions of dollars in annual exports. It has been heralded as a model of economic growth for resource poor countries in the Global South. Participation of women in the industry has been heralded as a breakthrough for women’s rights. However, the industry has long been plagued by low wages, poor working conditions, and lack of safety regulations.
Despite the Odisha Government's proclamation, the ambitious goal of regularizing 57,000 contract workers, predominantly engaged in vital sectors such as education, health, home, and welfare departments, has unfortunately not seen the light of the day.
After 16 days, when 41 trapped contract workers were rescued safely from the Uttarkashi Tunnel accident, their families and the people of the country heaved a sigh of relief. We hope that they will get the best kind of treatment.
Co-founder of Infosys Narayana Murthy recently stated that in order to increase work productivity in the nation and increase India's competitiveness, young Indians should put in up to 70 hours a week of labor. Naturally, this comment has caused a stir.
The Central Trade Unions and Samyukta Kisan Morcha congratulate the workers and farmers for successful three day Mahapadav.
MDM Workers Declare if Demands Are Not Addressed Indefinite Strike will Start from November 30!
In Odisha, one lakh sixty thousand Mid-Day Meal (MDM) workers and helpers are working in different primary and upper primary schools for cooking of mid meals for students. Many of them have been working since 1995, and presently they are getting only Rs. 1,400/- per month, which is in violation of the minimum wages of government rules.
The 8th State Conference of AICCTU, West Bengal, ended on a successful note with a pledge to build a strong movement to defeat the fascist regime. The conference was held in Moulali Yuva Kendra named after Sadhna Sen - Arup Chatterjee Hall and Barun Ghosh Manch. Worker representatives from tea gardens, jute mills, brick-kilns, hosiery, railways, the defence sector, construction and scheme sectors, public and private transportation, sanitation, and hawkers’ unions took part in this conference. Women worker representatives were also present in the conference.
Supreme Court Directions to eradicate manual Scavenging
The Supreme Court has issued a slew of directions to ensure the complete eradication of manual scavenging, while noting that a large segment of population in bondage have been sytematically trapped in inhuman conditions. The Court also enhanced the compensation in case of manual scavenging deaths from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 30 lakhs.
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) for October, 2023 has been released. India has ranked 111th out of 125 countries assessed by the index in terms of levels of hunger indicating a serious situation for the country. With a score of 28.7, India has reported a level of hunger that has been termed as serious by the GHI. While Pakistan (102nd) fares better than India in terms of its position in the GHI, 2023, other neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th) and Srilanka (60th) gain much higher position than India.
The ‘gender pay gap’ has been brought back into attention with the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences being awarded to Claudia Goldin who has worked half a century of her life to understand this anomaly. The Harvard Economist was recognised for her research that showed that women are, on an average, paid lesser than men, even when they have higher education levels, and such gap in remuneration begins at a time when a woman gets married and increases when she gives birth to children.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha expressed its’ anger against the Narendra Modi led RSS-BJP government that had made baseless, dishonest and false allegations in the Newsclick FIR against the historic farmers’ struggle. The FIR accused the farmers’ movement as anti-national, funded by foreign and terrorist forces.
The Indian story of economic growth and structural transformation since 1992 is an intriguing one. Rapid growth has not led to overall development but wealth has got concentrated in the hands of the few. The vast gulf has never been starker than today, when the government in power is working avowedly for corporate interests, but with the partial electoral approval of the poor and the working classes. This presents a unique set of challenges to activists who organize against inequality.
It is 76 years of India’s Independence, yet the racist profit seeking exploitation of Tea workers continues unabated. The tea estates of North Bengal and Assam carry the colonial legacy of inhuman exploitation of the tribes who were brought from Jharkhand and adjacent areas in the early nineteenth century by the colonial rulers. Since then, the mechanism for earning super profit by the owners of tea estates is kept intact What else could explain the fact that till now the governments refuse to fix minimum wages for tea workers?
New Delhi | 07 November 2023
Even as Israel escalates its genocidal war on Palestine with incessant bombing and ground invasion of Gaza, killing almost 10,000 Palestinians including more than 4000 children and levelling major parts of Gaza, reports are afloat that the Israeli and Indian governments are in talks for “export” of Indian workers to replace Palestinians whose work permits have been revoked and have been expelled from Israel.
Immediately Lift the Embargo on the Supply of Essential Items!
Stop the War on Gaza and Palestine Immediately!
Indian Government Must Use All Diplomatic Means to Ensure Immediate Cease Fire!
Force Israel to Initiate a Dialogue for a Sovereign Independent Palestine!
Dear Shawn Fain and comrades of the UAW,
Doctors’ Strike Across England
AICCTU Statement on Women’s Reservation Bill
In a tragic incident, 23 migrant workers from West Bengal lost their lives in a bridge collapse in Mizoram on 23 August 2023. All these workers from Malda district were engaged in constructing a bridge at Sairang area, near Aizawl, when it collapsed.
Delhi’s Ramleela Maidan was flooded by a wave of protesters demanding restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in a massive rally led by National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS) and Front against NPS in Railway on 1st October. The rally will be marked in history as nothing but unprecedented due to the sheer size of participation of government employees.
On 13th December, 2022, 155 workers were arbitrarily terminated from employment by Yazaki India Pvt Ltd.,
Recently, the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government and the Congress-led Karnataka government have implemented a monthly financial assistance scheme of Rs. 1000 and Rs. 2000 respectively for women fulfilling the poll promise.
September 8-10 was not normal for the national capital of India. A significant section of the city, especially in the New Delhi area, was converted into controlled and regulated zones. Traffic was restricted, offices closed, security personnel deployed all over the streets of the city. The city breathed cautiously for three days. The context was the G 20 summit in Delhi.
A JUST AND PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE
The whole world is watching with anxiety and concern the new bloodshed that is unfolding in Israel and Palestine and threatens to ignite the entire Middle East region.
The Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Sectoral Federations/Associations salutes the team of Engineers, Scientists, Communications Experts and so on, who made Chandrayaan-3 possible. Their undaunted work has opened up myriad of possibilities for India to forge ahead in many fields.
IREF (Indian Railway Employees Federation) took the timely initiative in forming an all India “Front Against New Pension Scheme in Railways” (FANPSR) through a convention at RCF/Kapurthala and gradually, the national front became a popular platform for restoration of OPS (Old Pension Scheme) among the young rail workers who joined Railways in the year 2004 and thereafter.
Neyveli Lignite Corporation of India Limited (NLC) is a central public sector undertaking established in 1956 under the Ministry of Coal, Government of India. The CPSU produces 30 million tons of lignite annually from open cast mines in Neyveli, the coal town of Tamil Nadu and Barsingsar of Rajasthan. It owns thermal power stations with an installed capacity of 3640 MW.
The 111th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) held in Geneva from 5th to 16th June deliberated on climate change along with other issues concerning the situation of decent work in the globe. The issue of climate change was dealt with from the perspective of changes in the nature of work in future.
In an overwhelming majority, the United States based automobile trade union - the United Auto Workers (UAW) voted on August 25 to authorize a strike action against Detroit’s big three automobile companies if they fail to offer a competitive contract by the time the current agreement expires on September 14.
Gangavaram Port Workers Protest
24th August, 2023, Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi
DECLARATION
The Rajasthan government, in July 2023, passed two laws – “The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act 2023” and “The Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Act 2023”
August 12th, 2023 marked a historic victory for striking ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) in Bihar with the state government agreeing to increase the monthly payment by Rs. 1,500 per month and providing the payment as ‘honorarium’, instead of ‘reward’ (paritoshik).
Comrade Sugundan, at the age of 75, passed away on 6th July 2023 at Vellore Government Hospital when he was under treatment for cardiac attack. Comrade Sugundan has been a whole time activist of the party for the last 40 years, the state Vice President of AICCTU and also a former state secretary for a brief period in 90s. He was also a delegate to the 11th party Congress at Patna in February and participated in the deliberations enthusiastically.
Tamil Nadu Democratic Construction Labour Union (affiliated to AICWF-AICCTU) held its 4th state conference at Kanyakumari (NK Natarajan nagar) on 7th July 2023. The conference Hall was named after Comrades Hari Singh and Jaffar and the stage was named after Comrades Ponraj and Omprakash Sharma.
The 23rd annual Puducherry state conference of construction workers union, "Jananayaga Kattumana Thozhilalar Sangam" (affiliated to AICWF - AICCTU) was successfully held on 2nd July at Karikalam Pakkam, Puducherry.
The conference was preceded by a procession for construction workers' welfare board protection rights. The procession was led by Murugan, CWC member, AICWF. Around two hundred workers took part in the procession. After the procession reached the conference venue, AICWF flag was hoisted by union executive committee member Meenakshi.
The fourth national conference of All India Construction Workers Federation (affiliated to AICCTU) was successfully held at Kanyakumari, the southern Cape of India on 8th & 9th July 2023.
The World Federation of Trade Unions is organizing a solidarity campaign with the people of Cuba, on the occasion of the 26th of July, the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, spreading the strong internationalist message that Cuba is not alone.
The 111th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC), an annual forum of tripartite discussion and formulation of conclusions on several issues concerning labour rights in the globe, was held in Geneva from 5th to 16th June 2023. The conference was organised by the of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Representatives of workers, employers and governments from 187 member states participated in the conference.
Let us Turn 2023 into a Year of Waves of Militant Struggles!
The fascist project of the BJP which constitutes a concerted effort to undermine democratic institutions and to promote Hindutva nationalism on the one hand, also engages in overt class warfare of the ruling class against the working class as one of its defining features.
India's 50 million construction workers are the builders of modern India. They build roads, highways, railway tracks, airports and ports that connect the vast sub-continent and make India one country, spanning all its distances and diversities.
The 5th State Conference of Maharashtra Rajya Sarva Shramik Mahasangh (Maharashtra State All Labor Federation), affiliated to AICCTU, was successfully held at Pune on 27 May 2023. On the occasion of inauguration of the conference, the red flag was hoisted by the President of the Federation, Com. Balasaheb Surude. The participants paid revolutionary tributes to the departed comrades and garlanded the martyrs' memorial.
The 3rd state conference of AICWF (All India Construction Workers Federation), Odisha unit concluded on 26th May 2023 at Nagbhushan Bhavan, Bhubaneshwar.
Delegates from districts of Khurda, Kendrapada, Puri, Gajapati, Angul, Sonepur, Nayagarh, Bhadrak and Jagatsing Pur participated.
Central observer Com. Kishore Sarkar hoisted the red flag to begin the conference.
The conference was conducted by a 5-member presidium including comrades Banshidhar Parida, Litulal Dev Subudhi, Srinivas Sahoo, Rajnigandha Barik and Samar Bal.
A joint meeting of the Joint platform of Central Trade Unions and Samyukt Kisan Morcha was held on 8th June 2023 in Delhi which expressed its satisfaction of the continued mutual solidarity and support to the programmes and actions on the demands of workers and farmers.
They reiterated not only to continue the ongoing support to the respective programmes of actions chalked out by respective platforms, but went further by taking a decision to plan nationwide joint activities against the anti-farmer, anti-worker and anti-national policies of the Central Govt.
[Full text of the Address by The WFTU General Secretary, Pambis Kyritsis in the 111th International Labour Conference on 12th June 2023 hosted by ILO at Geneva.]
Below is the full text of the letter to All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA):
At the outset, I, on behalf of AICCTU, wish a great success to the 29th National Conference of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) being held on 13-15 May 2023 at Mumbai.
The bank employees have always been in the forefront of struggles against privatization. AICCTU salutes this resolute struggle, which is a great source of inspiration to the working class of the country.
AICCTU strongly condemns the draconian action of De-recognition of National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) and the All India Postal Employees Union Group-C on frivolous grounds.
[Excerpts of key note address by Comrade Atul Dighe, Co-Convener of AICCEPFPA at the annual state conference of “Telangana All Pensioners’ and Retired Persons Association”]
Exemption for Industries to Implement the Law of working Hours!
As Karnataka approaches elections, here is a close look at the anti-labour policies adopted by the incumbent Karnataka government:
(A version of this interview was first published in The Awakened, Spring, 2023)
- by Shashi Yadav, Saroj Chaubey, Atul Dighe, Geeta Mandal, Vijay Vidrohi and Mahendra Parida
Chennai Fisherfolk protest against illegal eviction
Support the ongoing Struggle of the Blinkit workers against this arbitrary move!
May 1, 2023 marks the centenary of May Day celebration in India. Internationally, the observance of May Day had begun in 1886 with widespread protests and strike struggles demanding an eight-hour limit to the work day. Following the Haymarket massacre in Chicago on 4 May 1886, the movement gained further momentum.
Intensify the Battle Against Rising Unemployment, Drastic Decline in Wages, Privatisation, Monetisation, Codes of Slavery and Draconian Laws!
Nurses Strike Back!
No to Profits before Patients!
WFTU Condemns the Killings of Palestinians in the City of Jenin
France Revolts Against ‘Pension Reform’
AICCTU Stands in Solidarity with the Workers of France in their Struggle Against Retirement Reforms!
Zydus Workers on a Path of Struggle in Uttarakhand
Defeat the Dark Designs of Corporatisation in Power Sector:
Bulldozer Raj Continues to Attack Delhi’s Urban Poor
The Contract System is a Subterfuge
The Demand for Increased Pension is Gaining
“Our Unity And Struggle Gives us the Dignity as Workers!”
Rise in Productivity, Fall in Real Wages : ILO Report
Atanu Chakravarty
Comrade NK Natarajan who served as national and state leader of AICCTU in various capacities for decades, breathed his lost on 10th December 2022 while attending a CPI ML district committee meeting at Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu. He was elected the state secretary of CPI ML in a just concluded state party conference.
AICCTU district conferences of North 24 Parganas, Kolkata and Howrah were held in West Bengal in the month of November.
22nd state conference of Bihar State Non-Gazetted Employee’s Confederation (Gopgut) was held on 18th November 2022 at Motihari, Bihar. The open session of the conference was inaugurated by Comrade Dhirendra Jha, national General Secretary of AIARLA. The chief guest of the conference was Comrade Birendra Gupta, CPIML MLA from Sikta.
In the name of ‘Ease of Doing Business’, the Assam government has tabled ten bills which seek to decriminalize the industrial and labour laws on 20th December, 2022 in the winter session of Assam assembly. This will effectively mean violators of labour laws will escape imprisonment.
The state government owned Rubber corporation, producing natural rubber, is situated at Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the country. The plantation corporation started its operations since 1984 and is spread over an area of 4000 hectares. It is engaged in growing and maintaining the plants, harvesting latex from matured trees and in uprooting the aged trees.
AICCTU demands Tamil Nadu government to stop the state level survey regarding welfare board pension beneficiaries and to withdraw the GO 115 and 152 which allows outsourcing in place of vacancies of permanent workers.
As the process of privatization of coal industry is gaining momentum, the situation of workers of coalfield is becoming more and more similar to the scenario of pre-nationalization era. The grip of coal mafias over the entire process of production as well as dispatch is getting stronger day by day. As a result, the struggle of livelihood of coal pickers, the most wretched section of toiling masses in the coal field sector, has become a significant phenomenon in recent years.
[Presented at the 3rd all India Conference of IREF (Indian Railway Employees Federation), affiliated to AICCTU, at Dhanbad on 11-12 Dec. 2022]
The 3rd all-India Conference of Indian Railway Employees Federation (IREF), affiliated to AICCTU, was held successfully on 11-12 December 2022 at Dhanbad, Jharkhand. The conference began with an open session of well decorated mass meeting on 11th, against New Pension Scheme and Privatization of Railways.
[This is a paper presented by Comrade SK Sharma, the General Secretary of AICWF (All India Construction Workers Federation), affiliated to AICCTU in an all-India workshop held at Ranchi, Jharkhand on 9 – 10 Nov. 2022]
[A speech by Comrade Shankar V, the president of AICCTU at the inaugural session of the 42nd conference of AITUC at Alappuzha, Kerala on 17 December 2022]
All India Construction Workers Federation (AICWF), affiliated to AICCTU, held its first ever all India workshop at Ranchi on 9 – 10 Nov. 2022, with emphasis on reorienting its practice among construction workers.
A state-level conference of sanitation workers (powrakarmikas) was held on 06.11.2022 at Ambedkar Bhavan in Bangalore by the BBMP Pourakarmika Sangha, Karnataka Pragathipara Pourakarmika Sangha, Karnataka Pragathipara Tajya Sagisuva Vahana Chalakara Matthu Sahayakara Sangha (all affiliated with AICCTU), demanding that all powrakarmikas in the state be made permanent.
The Workers Resistance and AICCTU wish the working class of the country to turn 2023, into a year of militant struggles that is potential enough to overthrow the anti-worker Modi regime from the power in 2024 elections.
The year 2022 was a witness to brutal assaults on workers’ rights by the Modi government and also the workers' retaliation against it.
Uttar Pradesh ASHA Workers Union (affiliated to AICCTU) has concluded its 9-month-long strike at the National Health Mission district office by organising the ‘Dastak Do’ programme.
Corporation of Coimbatore in Tamilnadu consists of 100 wards. Some 4,000 workers are employed in sanitary work by the corporation. In spite of their service for more than 13 years, sanitation workers are neither regularised nor paid mandatory minimum wages. They are being paid with Rs.
‘Halt Price Rise, Give Fair Wages, Ensure Regular Jobs’- these were the central slogans of the 10
Congratulates the Working class of France for their massive Strike Struggle
A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Strike. Strikes of this scale and dimension, and with such enthusiasm and resoluteness had not appeared in the advanced capitalist countries for past many decades.
For anyone associated with the working class movement in the state of Chhattisgarh, one cannot but feel a great nostalgia for the militant and creative movement led by the charismatic leader Comrade Shankar Guha Niyogi from 1977 onwards till his assassination in Bhilai on 28th September 1991, at
One does not go to a convention against fascism to get hold of a definitive analysis of fascism. One goes there to see what fascism means and does to people of different modes of existence, and how – and how effectively – they are resisting it.
When the Railways came into being in British India, the daily rated workers were employed for laying track of 34 km between Bori Bunder (Bombay) and Thane during 1850's. This workforce was of poor peasants uprooted from village and artisans facing gradual destruction of independent crafts.
Shantamma worked for 30 years in the mines of Sandur, Ballari district in Karnataka – from earning a mere Rs. 50/- a month. Her children were born in the mines and grew up there. In 2011, she was thrown out of employment, and not paid a single rupee as compensation.
For a long while, the sanitation workers of Bishnupur Municipality are being deprived of payment of their ad-hoc bonus. Last year, the West Bengal government announced an ad-hoc bonus of rupees 4500. However, the workers actually received only rupees 1,200 in hand. To avail the full amount of the bonus this year, 'Bishnupur Pourasabha Sangrami Sromik Karmachari Union' decided to organize a powerful protest.
After a yearlong struggle contractual workers of Jadavpur University secured their primary demands regarding better wages, regular EPF/ ESI, bonus, paid sick leave and other work-related issues. At a time when the inflation is skyrocketing, the workers were receiving wages which was inadequate for sustenance and much lesser than the accepted wage rates in state government aided institutions.
A massive protest, sit in, was held by Uttar Pradesh ASHA Workers Union (affiliated to AICCTU) on 12 September, 2022 in Lucknow.
In 2021, there were sixteen work stoppages involving 80,700 workers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics documents major work stoppages involving more than one thousand workers for one shift during the work week.
Wages under 17B Allowed in Appeal against Sec. 33(2)(b) Order
Rajasthan ranks very low amongst the states when level of minimum wages for workers legally notified is taken into account. The prevailing minimum wage rates in Rajasthan are far less than several other states in the country.
The Union Government has recently come out with a 4th draft of the Indian Ports Bill, which seeks to replace the 1908 Indian Ports Act.
In the last budget, a major portion of Railways’ allocation of Rs.1,40,367.13 crores was allocated for PM's Gati Shakti Master Plan announced on 75
In the first two weeks of September, Bengaluru experienced torrential rains that left several thousand working-class families in the lurch due to submergence of their houses.
The False Claims of Economic Growth
The Government of India organised a Labour Ministers’ conference at Tirupati on 25–26 August 2022 without any representatives of any central trade unions. The conference was virtually inaugurated by the Prime Minister Modi.
Urban bodies as principal employers must intervene to ensure their wellbeing
Observations of the Central Trade Unions (CTUs) on the Indian Government’s Report to the Committee of Experts on the Application of Convention and Recommendations (CEACR) regarding the application of Convention No. C81 and C144, INDIA
Place of Posting or Seniority:
A case of institutionalized violence caused by Government’s neo-liberal policies
D-53 Defence Colony now becomes an address of almost a monochromatic world of resistance over an array of injustice, a witnessing note of a communist-propagandist-Anupam Roy (b.1985) who is displaying his last three years’ body of wo
The new model of revising norms for APAR (Annual Performance Assessment Report) is designed to scuttle the rights of annual increment and group incentive for the workers of railway production units.
Implementation of ESI Across the Country by 2022
United Workers Resistance is the Need of the Hour!
The 8th Congress of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) was held at Kathmandu from 23 to 26 July 2022. Com. K. P.
A latest study by the Working People’s Coalition (WPC) has revealed that 95% of Delhi workers do not get statutory minimum wages.
The Principal Labour Court, Chennai recently awarded reinstatement with full backwages to Mr. Thirumalai Selvan, an employee of TCS, and in a seven-year legal battle. The case must be seen as an important victory for this section of workers.
In early April this year, the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill was passed by both houses of the parliament and has subsequently become a piece of law that will be enforced. This Act, which we will refer to as CPIA in this article, is the latest in a long list of draconian legislations designed to allow the state to target and surveil citizens.
Hundreds of mid-day meal workers held demonstration under Paschim Banga Sangrami Randhankarmi Union and Nadia Jela Sangrami Mid-day Meal Union, both affiliated to AICCTU, at Dharamtala in Kolkata on 7 and 8 June against the continued neglect of their demands by the state government. More than 500 workers participated in the demonstration.
A mass campaign including protest demonstrations against outsourcing of 64 Ticket Booking Counters over Kharagpur Division of South Eastern Railway was launched by South Eastern Railway Mazdoor Union (SERMZU, affiliated to IREF and AICCTU) from 11th to 25th June, 2022.
Thousands of railway workers in the United Kingdom embarked on a historic national strike on June 21, 23 and 25 against the attempts by Network Rail (that operates and develops most of Britain’s railway infrastructure) and train operating companies to cut thousands of jobs.
Tyler Daguerre is a 26-year-old area organizer and barista in Boston. His Starbucks store became one of the first two stores to win their union election in Massachusetts. He serves on the organizing committee for his store as well as is involved at the regional and national level in the Starbucks workers’ movement. He focuses mostly on unfair labor practices, outreach, and community solidarity-building.
The battleground is all set to launch a protracted movement in Bengal tea sector. Tea workers, both the daily wagers and the employees together have been raging for the last 7 years with the demand to implement Minimum Wages for the first time in more than 150 years old tea gardens in North Bengal.
Consistent struggles by ASHA and mid-day meal workers in Uttar Pradesh have secured victory in terms of clearing various pending dues
Sanitation workers, the core constituent of the workforce that runs every institute, are most often the ones whose legal and social rights are violated and
In a historic victory to the sanitation workers across Karnataka, the BJP-led government at the State has agreed to make their jobs permanent, among other demands. After a four-day long strike held in 31 districts, including sweepers, auto drivers, helpers, loaders, UGD workers, who were working under the direct-payment system, sham contract, daily wagers, among other artificially distinguished workers, will be made permanent.
Uttar Pradesh
ASHAs of UP On AN Onward March!
Vijay Vidrohi
8 May 2022
Dear colleagues, brothers and sisters, thanks for the election
I am aware of the responsibility I take on. WFTU carries a long and glorious history of struggle and in the current conditions it has a very important role to play in coordinating and guiding the class-oriented labor movement throughout the world.
The General Strike and After
The history of unauthorized housing in Delhi can be traced back to the planning failures of the state, particularly the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which has through successive master plans failed in its goal to build enough lower and middle income housing in the city. Unauthorised colonies (UAC) are deemed as such as they are built on land which is neither zoned for residential purposes nor earmarked for other development work in the city’s masterplan.
Sanitation Workers Demand Regularisation
In a horrible incident, a factory fire broke out in Delhi’s Mundka on 13 May 2022. Dozens of workers were burnt alive and several others were injured. The official figure of deaths in the Mundka fire is reported to be 27, and the number of missing persons is reported to be 29. However, a fact finding team constituted by AICCTU that visited the place estimates that the number of deaths to be not less than 100.
A state level cadre workshop of AICCTU Andhra Pradesh was conducted in Tirupathi, Chittoor District on 9th and 10th of April. The cadre workshop was organised with the purpose of discussing present challenges in organising working class movement and for conducting educational class on basic marxist concepts on labour exploitation.
A Report of the Fact Finding Team (FFT) by AICCTU & AILAJ
A migrant worker from Bihar working in SKM Food Oil Mill, situated at Erode of Tamil Nadu, was killed in an industrial accident. 40 workers imprisoned in connection with violent protests.
Summary of the incident:
A migrant worker, named Kamoth Ram, from Bihar was hit by a coconut cobra loaded transport truck and he died on the spot inside the SKM oil refinery company premises located at Modakuruchi of Erode on 6th April 2022 around 9 PM.
(A memorandum submitted by AICCTU to the Ranchi Municipal Corporation)
On behalf of All India Central Council of Trade Unions, we demand that the Ranchi Municipal Corporation immediately withdraw its plan to compel sanitation workers to wear GPS bands. The proposal of the Municipal Corporation was reported in the newspaper “Prabhat Khabar” dated 29.04.2022.
AICCTU Delhi Leads Struggle against Retrenchment of Contractual Medical Workers in Hospitals Across Delhi
Delhi has been the epicentre of successive Corona waves that devastated the nation since 2020. From number of infections to number of deaths, the National Capital Region has been second to only Maharashtra in the last two years. When the deadly second wave appeared in April-May, 2021, patients from almost every alternate household from every locality of the city were rushing in search of hospital beds.
[Submitted by AICCTU, Other Central Trade Unions and Civil Rights Organisations on the Assam State Rules on Labour Codes]
The student community of Trivandrum Medical College gained a significant victory under the leadership of All India Students' Association (AISA) over the grave systemic injustice of the college towards its laboratory-based trainee students. At the peak of the pandemic period, the college withdrew the stipend facility of trainee students and exploited their free labour coupled with poor and discriminatory working conditions.
On April 20, a UK court sanctioned the extradition of Journalist, activist and founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange to the United States. He is facing espionage charges in the US for exposing the war crimes committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange faces a possible jail term upto 175 years if extradited to the US.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has rendered an important judgment on 22nd April 2022 (Madurai Corporation vs. The Inspector of Labour, Madurai and Ors), confirming the order of conferment of permanent status on 390 sanitary workers of the Madurai Municipal Corporation under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishments (Conferment of Permanent Status to Workmen) Act, 1981.
State has to Pay Salary Even if Appointment was Irregular
Interview with Vijay Kumar Verma, of Convenor, Sahara Sangharsh Samiti, Udaipur
1. What is the SEBI case regarding Sahara Credit Cooperative Society not paying its dues?
Vijay Verma: The dispute of Sahara and SEBI is going on regarding two schemes, related to real estate and housing.
2. When did this dispute emerge? How many depositors are likely to be impacted and how much money is involved?
(inputs from Bibek Das)
The mass-scale exploitation of tea plantation workers in Assam and across the country has been well documented over the years. Recently, certain orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the One Member Committee constituted by the Court to look into the issue of pending dues of these workers, highlights even further the abysmal situation the workers are forced to survive in, and the wholescale violation of their statutory and constitutional rights.
Dear Delegate comrades,
Red Salute to all, and Greetings from AICCTU and millions of working people of India on this great occasion of 18th World Trade Union Congress of WFTU. At the outset, we would take this opportunity to salute the dock workers of Italy for stopping the Arms Shipment to Israel in May 2021 in an exemplary move of solidarity with the people of Palestine. We salute the militant working class movement of Italy for its relentless resistance to the neo-liberal and imperialist designs.
Reading the judgment of the Supreme Court
Hunger feels like pincers, like the bite of crabs;
it burns, burns, and has no fur.
Let us sit down soon to eat with all those who haven't eaten;
let us spread great tablecloths, put salt in lakes of the world,
set up planetary bakeries, tables with strawberries in snow,
and a plate like the moon itself from which we can all eat.
In a video, a man walks into a vegetable shop for lemons. He pays 5 rupees for the lemon and presents a small glass. The vendor takes out a syringe, inserts it into the lemon. He pulls out 10 ml of lemon juice using the syringe and gives it to the customer. This video is a comedy sketch, which is going viral on social media. But underneath this comedy video lies a great tragedy unfolding in India.
Now, Sir, it has been said that there is no such thing as the right to strike. My reply is that this statement can come from a man who really does not understand what a strike is. If members are prepared to accept my meaning of the word “strike” as being nothing more than a breach of contract, then I submit that a strike is simply another name for the right to freedom ; it is nothing else than the right to the freedom of one’s services on any terms that one wants to obtain.
The First May Day
In the late nineteenth century, the working classes were in constant struggle to gain the 8-hour workday. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10-to-16-hours a day in unsafe conditions and in heavily underpaid jobs. Death and injury were commonplace at many workplaces. As early as the 1860’s, working people started agitating to shorten the workday without a cut in pay. This movement started in Australia, and gradually spread elsewhere.
Eleven migrant workers from Bihar were charred to death in a huge fire at a scrap godown in Bhoiguda, Hyderabad, on 23rd March. According to the Hyderabad Clues team, three reasons triggered the fire: a short circuit caused by poor wiring, a fire extinguisher falling on a trolley parked beside the spiral staircase, which went up in flames, and a gas leak. Whatever be the immediate reason for the fire, it would have been averted if safety measures were strictly put in place as per law.
Protests have erupted in Sri Lanka as country reels under severe economic crisis as prices of essential commodities and fuel are reaching sky high. The country is witnessing long queues at fuel stations and grocery shops, with the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government announcing deployment of military. According to reports more than three elderly people have dropped dead at fuel queues.
Thousands of workers of the London Tube (Underground Metro) embarked on two 24 hour strikes on March 3 and March 1 against the spending cuts and mass layoffs. The strike was called under the banner of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union. Picket lines were organised outside various metro stations in London by the striking workers.
Larsen and Toubro workers in Puducherry are on war path demanding equal wages for equal work and abolition of contract labour system in production. All four units in Puducherry are on total strike since 15 March 2022. The strike is on for more than 16 days (as on 31 Mar 2022) is still continuing. The strike is backed by all categories of workers, including 150 regular employees led by other unions.
Beneath the Glitz
Ambedkar Jayanti, Amidst a Workers’ Struggles
This year’s Ambedkar Jayanti arrives on the back of a two-day general strike on 28 and 29 March, called by central trade unions and other sectoral organizations. The unions are demanding work for every hand, equal pay for equal work, the scrapping of the labour codes, immediate measures against the record-high unemployment and skyrocketing price-rise, and an end to mass privatisation and sale of the country’s public resources.
1. Ad-hoc Employee Granted Pension by Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has directed the State Government of Gujarat to pay pensionary benefits to an ad-hoc employee who retired from his employment after 30 years of continuous service. It reprimanded the state government for stating that it is unreasonable to claim pension as the workman was employed on an ad-hoc basis for 30 years and therefore was not eligible for pension. The Supreme Court in its order noted that “as a welfare State, the State as such ought not to have taken such a stand.”
The official slogan of “industrialization” that emanated from the corridors of power at the fag end of the Left Front Government which dug the grave for the 34 years of Left Front hegemony, has now resurrected again. Now, the present Chief Minister of Bengal, Ms Mamata Banerjee, has embarked upon the road of industrialising Bengal, desperately trying to erase the “anti-industrial” image she earned when she was in her high-noon of political opposition. Irony, per se!
Introduction
The Aam Admi Party (AAP) has gained a major victory in recently conducted Punjab Assembly elections. The party has won 92 out of 117 assembly seats and it has defeated the incumbent Congress. The Shiromoni Akali Dal – an ally of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) – and the BJP itself were also routed to ground in the election result. Bhagwant Mann, a prominent Member of Parliament from AAP has been sworn in as the Chief Minister of Punjab.
The recent struggle of the workers working at M/s ITI Ltd., Bengaluru once again brings to the forefront the question of contract workers and the conditions under which they are forced to work, especially in public sector undertakings and the Government. These workers like thousands of other workers in various public sector undertakings have been termed as contract workers and denied their most basic rights despite working for several decades.
[An Abridged Version of the Fact Finding Team Report on the Mistreatment of ITI Contract Workers—Almost Half of Whom are Dalits—on the 100th Day of their Struggle. Bengaluru, 10th March 2022.]
One Hundred Days of Struggle!
On 1st December 2021, 80 workers of India’s first Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), M/s Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Limited, based in Bengaluru, were terminated with little justification. Despite having worked for between 3 to 35 years, workers are guised as “contract workers.”
Message of Greetings from AICCTU
AICCTU Congratulates the working class of India for making the two days all-India strike on 28-29 March strike successful. The strike was made successful by the working class of the country braving threats and intimidations not only by the Modi led BJP government at the centre but also by many BJP and non-BJP led state governments. The working class of the country has taken up the challenge of the corporates to break the strike with the support of various governments.
Athens, 24th March 2022
The international class-oriented trade union movement, the 105 million workers who join the ranks of the WFTU, fully stand on the side of the workers of India who are prepared for another great Two Days’ Countrywide General Strike against the anti-worker, anti-people, anti-national Policies of the Indian Govt. on March 28-29, 2022.
The Farmers, Students, Youth, Women came in Support
Workers Resistance and AICCTU congratulates the working class of the country for making the all-India strike on 28 – 29 March 2022 a great success. The strike was made successful defying all machinations, threats, arrests, ESMAs and scores of intimidations not only by the Modi led BJP government but also by several non-BJP ruled state governments.
16 mine workers lost their lives on 1st February, 2022, on a single day, in different unsafe coal mining areas like Gopinathpur, Kapasara and Dahibari in Jharkhand. 10 workers died in Gopinathpur, 3 in Kapasara and 3 in Dahibari. The relatives of the deceased workers feel threatened to identify the dead workers as that may lead to getting framed under false charges by the police.
After a prolonged struggle for 28 days under the leadership of AICCTU, railway contract sanitation workers of Mancheswar, Odisha, achieved a significant victory. At the end of January 2022, all of a sudden, sixty-five contract sanitation workers - men and women - of the Mancheswar Rail Carriage Repairing Workshop of East Coast Railway (ECoR) were thrown out of their jobs and pushed to starvation and misery by the railway administration. They were terminated by changing the nature of the contract. These workers had been employed in the workshop for more than 10 years.
Punish Kejriwal’s Party for Its Betrayal to Workers
The DTC Workers Unity Centre (DTCWUC), affiliated to AICCTU, conducted an extensive campaign from the beginning of February against the blatant betrayal of workers by the AAP (Aam Admi Party) led Delhi government.
Sergio Reyes is a social and political activist from Chile. His father, a carpenter and member of the Communist Party, took him to his meetings with fellow workers. Later, he became a student organizer in high school. In 1973 during his first year in University, he was arrested by the Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship that overturned the democratically elected presidency of Salvador Allende. He was sentenced to 5 years for his political activity and spent 3 years in various concentration camps until he was granted political exile in the U.S in 1976.
In an unfortunate development, the Supreme Court of India has refused to entertain the right to housing for city’s working class in a matter related to impending displacement of around 10,000 people in Surat, Gujarat who live on a land, for over 60 years, belonging to the railways. These are the people who run the city by their labour. They are mainly unorganised workers and several of them are also engaged in railway related activities.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, has decided to repeal the ‘archaic’ legislation, Tea Act of 1953, that deals with matters of tea cultivation, management, control of tea undertakings, control and export of tea seeds etc. Tea Board of India, in its press release, declared that “after more than 68 years, some of the existing propositions of the Tea Act, 1953 have become ‘redundant’ due to efflux of time, for which it has been proposed to bring a new act in place of the present act under which Tea Board will act as a facilitator for the benefit of the tea indus
Authorities as Agents and Perpetrators of Bonded Labour!
India’s Finance Minister, while presenting the Union Budget in February 2021, had announced the privatization of Public Sector Banks (PSB) as part of the disinvestment drive to garner Rs 1.75 lakh crore. The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which the government will soon introduce, is aimed at facilitating this process. This amendment seeks to bring down the minimum government holding in the PSBs from 51% to 26%.
Can the people feel assured of safe and comfortable rail travel because of budget allocation of Rs 1,40,367.13 Crores for 2022-23? It’s really a question mark. In fact, this allocation is a part of the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity announced on the day of the country’s 75th year of Independence. PM Gati Shakti Master Plan to upgrade infrastructure (Railways, Roads, Airports, Ports, Public Transportation, Waterways and Logistics) is described as "seven engines" for economic growth and development leading to huge job opportunities.
The struggle of the workers of the Indian Telephone Industries Limited (ITI) that started on 1st December, 2021, after 80 workers were terminated for having unionized, continues. On its 86th day of the struggle, a historic convention was organized jointly with Samyukta Horata, a coalition of Farmers, Dalit and Workers Organizations against the Contract Labour System and other forms of bonded labour opposite to the ITI Corporate Office in Bengaluru.
1. Decision to Outsource Jobs Criticised by Calcutta HC
Taking to task the Indian Statistical Institute for arbitrarily terminating the services of their gardeners, the Calcutta High Court directed that the Petitioners, who were gardeners working in the institute since 2013, shall work under the ISI. The Court also stated that under no circumstances should their services be terminated without following the previous decisions of the institute in this matter, and that their services cannot be transferred to a contractor from the fold of the ISI.
Powrakarmikas (Sanitation Workers) perform the obligatory duties of the local bodies, keeping the cities and towns clean and safeguarding the health of every person. The workers are predominantly Dalit pre-ordained by the caste system to perform these jobs generationally, and structurally oppressed and deprived of social dignity, education, proper housing and the fundamental choice of opting for other occupations.
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the centre has been making tall claims about expanding the budget allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Act) (MGNREGA), in order to provide relief to the rural poor during the covid pandemic. The situation is full of irony. Modi (in)famously mocked MGNREGA as a mark of the failure of previous governments to provide stable and quality employment. Previous governments compensated for their failure by paying people for filling empty pits with sand, he had said.
A Post Human Job Market?
‘Humans Need Not Apply’. This was the title of a provocative video found floating around on YouTube in August 2014. It spoke of a future where new developments in digital technologies would push human labour out of the market in unprecedented ways.
The ASHA workers of Uttar Pradesh are in a continuous struggle for their rights under the leadership of the Uttar Pradesh ASHA Workers Union (affiliated to AICCTU) since the all India strike by scheme workers in September, 2021. The organisation has spread far and wide, across the state, since then.
On 19 January 2022, the Israeli occupation forces forcefully evicted two Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem and demolished their homes. The demolition and expulsion followed days of protests by the affected Salhiyeh family household. According to reports, Israeli forces broke into their home in the night and assaulted family members. Six of the family members were arrested, including the head of the household, Mahmoud Salhiyeh. Earlier, the Israeli forces arrested 25 people for protesting against the eviction drive on 17 January this year.
On the morning of 2 January 2022, two days after the world entered into a new year, hundreds of people began gathering in the city square of Zhanaozen in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan. Overnight more people began to gather in this oil-rich region and in other parts of the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, including in the capital city of Almaty. The main demand of the protesters was the reduction of fuel prices, which had been increased by around 100 per cent.
On 13th January 2022 at around 5P.M, the Bikaner Express, running from Bikaner to Guwahati via Patna, derailed between the New Domohani and New Maynaguri stations in North Bengal, killing 9 passengers and injuring 40 which include critically wounded passengers. The gruesome pictures of 12 mangled coaches mounting on top of each other indicate complete failure of safety ecosystem in railways.
Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), a joint venture of Government of India and the State Government of Karnataka, is the agency for building, operating and expanding the “Namma Metro” ("Our Metro" in Kannada) network. The BMRCL started constructing Bangalore Metro Rail in April 2015 and after completion of first phase it had planned for the second phase, there are 6 routes that are being constructed with huge investments from foreign banks.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced its intention to repeal the Tea Act, 1953 to enact Tea (Development and Promotion) Bill, 2022 in its place. It published the Bill on its website on 10 January 2022 and sought responses from the public before 21 January 2022.
Jute Industry is again hogging the limelight in West Bengal, albeit, for all the wrong reasons. Despite a bumper crop of raw jute, the owners of jute mills are closing down mills one after another on the plea of a raw jute crisis. At a time when the third wave of COVID is ravaging the state in particular, more than 12 jute mills have shut down their operations, rendering thousands and thousands of workers jobless. Many more are operating with shorter and fewer shifts and reduced workforce.
The Bihar Rajya ASHA Karyakarta Sangh (affiliated to AICCTU and Maha sangh (Gope Gut) and ASHA Sangharsh Samiti (affiliated to CITU), jointly under the banner of ASHA Samyukt Sangharsh Manch, have declared indefinite strike of ASHA workers in Bihar from 17th February 2022.
The struggle of ITI Workers in Bengaluru who were refused employment on 1 December 2021 has entered into its 50th day. These workers who have worked with ITI Ltd. for long periods ranging from 3 to 35 years were refused employment for the sole reason that they unionized and sought their legitimate rights. Despite working for such long periods, these workers who are predominately women and Dalit workers, are termed contract workers and denied their rights.
New Delhi, 3rd Feb 2022
Nirsa, the coal capital of Dhanbad, bore witness to the deaths of a dozen women and men on 1st February, 2022, in a mining accident. CPI-ML General Secretary comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, the state secretary Com. Manoj Bhakt and MCC (Marxist Coordination Committee) ex MLA Arup Chatterjee, visited the accident site of collieries at Nirsa on 3rd February along with several activists.
Over the last several years, there has been a steep decline in the security of tenure of working journalists in India. The large number of journalists getting retrenched by major newspaper managements have been widely reported. , In an important report on attacks on journalists during 2014-19, it was noticed that “With the increasing corporatisation of the media, journalists on the frontlines of newsgathering are dogged by acute and increasing precarity, i.e. lack of job-security and increasing job losses.
The World Inequality Report
The World Inequality Report (WIR) 2022, coordinated by Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty and others, and published by the World Inequality Lab, holds up an important mirror to the world. It shows the deeply unequal times that we are living through.
In the early months of 2020, when the Modi government announced a national lockdown with no preparation whatsoever, thousands of migrant workers were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres to their homes in desperation. When the government was subsequently asked details of these workers, it claimed to have no information. The outrage generated by this callous response led the Modi government to announce the formation of the E-shram portal, officially a database of unorganised workers in India.
The following statement was issued to the press by the joint platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Sectoral Federations/Associations on 29th January 2022
THE DATES FOR TWO DAYS COUNTRYWIDE STRIKE CHANGED
With the Modi government's flashy words and misleading talks, central budget 2022-23 is another blow on the hardworking public of the country, facing drastic decline in economy due to unemployment, inflation and loss of income and wages during the corona pandemic. Instead of getting them out of this crisis and suffering, this budget has proven to dig deeper holes in their pockets.
The documentary film 1232 Kms is a vivid chronicle of the agonies of the poor migrant labourers in the unprecedented lockdown during Covid-19 in India. The film accompanies the journey of seven migrant labourers to their native homes from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh to Saharsa in Bihar covering a distance of 1232 Kms. The labourers working in Delhi construction sites decide to leave to their homes after going through the enormous hardships and difficulties of extended lockdowns and left with nothing to fend for themselves.
Food Processing Workers Strike in South Africa
Food processing industry workers in South Africa, under the banner of Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) and the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA), began an indefinite strike at Israeli-owned dairy giant Clover on 22 November. The striking workers are demanding an end company’s attempts to retrench workers and increasing working hours.
On December 10, a series tornado struck across six US states, killing more than 80 people. It left a trail of death and destruction behind its path, with hundreds of homes and structure razed to ground. Amid the calamity, when everyone was looking for their safety, corporates were trying to churn profits. Among the killed were several factory workers including those working at Amazon ware house in Illinois and a candle factory in Mayfield.
Death of workers at Amazon warehouse in Illinois
An Indonesian Constitutional Court on 25 November 2021 ordered President Joko Widodo to amend parts of the controversial Omnibus Law. The law aimed to dilute the county's previously existing labour, land acquisition and environmental laws in favour of "attracting more foreign investment." The term Omnibus comes from Latin and means "to, for, by, with or from everything". The Omnibus Law thus brings various legislations under a single document.
The Amazon Empire
Amazon started in 1994 as an online bookseller and distributor. Since its founding it has become one of the largest corporations in the world with a market capitalization of 1.7 trillion dollars. It has 1.2 million part -time and full-time employees. There are 1093 global Amazon facilities (per data from June 2019), with 477 located in the U.S and, notably, 331 located in India. The exact numbers of data centers for Amazon Web Services (AWS) are not available but are estimated to be 36 in the U.S. and 3 in Ireland employing 10,000 people.
The stated objective of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, was two-fold – firstly, it was thought to be expedient to require employers in industrial establishments to define with sufficient precision the conditions of employment under them and secondly, that the said conditions be made known to workmen employed by them.
1. Beauticians Re-start Strike Against Urban Company
The Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government enacted an ordinance on December 22, 2003, imposing a New Pension Scheme (NPS), based on the vagaries of stock market dynamic and removing the entitlement of the old pension scheme (excluding the armed forces), to those who joined as government employee on or after January 1, 2004. Except for two or three states every other state in India adopted it. The root of the NPS lies in the LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation) policies imposed on the country way back in 1991 by the Congress government led by Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh.
The International Labour Organization recently released a report on the impact of the COVID pandemic on enterprises and workers in the formal and informal economy in India. This report, which essentially focuses on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India, has tried to capture various aspects of the trajectory of the MSME sector in India during the pandemic.
In the last assembly polls in West Bengal, the ruling party had come up with various promises for the transport workers stating that those who have been working as direct contract workers in various transport companies under West Bengal Transport Corporation (CTC, CSTC, WBSTC), NBSTC and SBSTC for a long time will be made permanent. It was also promised that the employees who are working temporarily or through agencies will be made contract workers directly under the company and would gradually be made permanent in the future.
Taiwanese Foxconn company situated near Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu supplies spare parts to Apple-I phone and Amazon’s Fire stick employing about 6000 women workers. About 200 workers staying in one hostel provided by company fell ill after taking food on 15.12.2021 and were hospitalized. While many workers were returned after treatment, whereabouts of few workers were not known.
Workers of the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation (MSRTC) are on strike for more than 55 days. They are demanding assimilation in the state government services. MSRTC is known as ST in Maharashtra. The then Bombay provincial government established Mumbai State Transport Corporation in 1948 by nationalizing the then existing private services. After the state of Maharashtra was formed in 1960 the ST expanded the services to the entire state reaching even the remotest villages. This was carried out to fulfill the need of Capitalism at that stage of “Development”.
The massacre of coal mine workers by a Special Forces unit of the Army in Oting village of Mon district in Nagaland is a heinous crime, compounded by attempts to cover it up by staging a fake encounter. The attempts by Home Minister Amit Shah and the Army officials to explain it away as a “mistake” cannot convince even the BJP’s own members and allies in the North East.
The Narendra Modi government at the centre has learnt its lessons from the resounding setback to its policies given by the farmers’ agitation. For now they have decided that discretion is the better part of valour. In the face of mounting resistance from the bank employees they have desisted from introducing the Banking Laws Amendment Bill, 2021 in the winter session. Bank strike on 16 and 17th December was a huge success. Barring some new generation banks in some cities, the shutdown was complete.
"They have force and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force. History is ours, and people make history!" These were the final words of Salvador Allende, a socialist President of Chile, who was overthrown in 1973 by a right-wing coup organised by Augusto Pinochet and backed by United States.
On the occasion of conference of “RCF Employees’ Union” (affiliated to IREF and AICCTU), a workers’ convention was organised on 18 December 2021 in the premises of the RCF (Rail Coach Factory) situated in Kapurthala, Punjab. The well-attended and highly enthusiastic convention was teeming with the spirit of worker-peasant unity.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), like any other educational institutions, does not merely comprise of teachers and students, but also hundreds of workers who toil every day to keep the campus functioning. It is workers of the campus who keep the campus clean, run the mess in hostels, keep library and class rooms functional, maintain necessary services like electricity, keep the campus green and beautiful as well as make administrative work possible. Majority of these workers, now a days, are hired on contractual basis through private contractors.
While the economy is still languishing, the Finance Minister unabashedly claimed that the Indian economy is now on the path of robust recovery and has "put the effects of the pandemic far behind". This was the FM's statement at the "Leadership Summit" organised by Hindustan Times. In the same summit, on 4 December 2021, Home Minister Amit Shah went a step ahead and said, "Indian economy is fastest in the world to come out of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic because of the policy decisions taken by Modi Government".
2021 has been the year of onslaughts against working class and also a determined resistance against the onslaughts by the working class. 2021 has been the year of an exemplary display of workers – farmers unity!
Metal workers in the Spanish city of Cadiz ended their strike on November 25 after a pay rise deal was agreed. The strike on November 16 witnessed more that 20,000 workers hitting the streets demanding a pay rise in line with the surging inflation rate, which in October stood at 5.5%.
The strike witnessed heavy police repression with security forces using rubber bullets on the workers in picket lines on November 23.
Frontline workers employed in Victoria hospital as housekeeping staff, ward attenders, lift operators, Data entry operators and security, have not been paid their wages for October 2021. Victoria Hospital was a dedicated COVID-19 facility, and these workers worked throughout the first and second wave of COVID-19. The wages for the month of September had also been delayed and was only paid on 31st October.
A successful convention of employees from various sectors including railway, education and other government departments was held at Vasundhara Hall of Varanasi zone of Eastern Railway on 13th November 2021. The convention was organised under the initiative of ‘Front against New Pension Scheme (NPS) in Railways’ (henceforth referred as FANPS).
The Propaganda March of Sanitation Workers
Sanitation work is a dehumanising occupation and is one that is reserved for the Dalit community across the country. Sanitation workers are not merely individual members of this workforce out of pure choice; but members, by birth, with inerasable identity and inter-generational continuity. Most sanitation workers are women, and are victims of triple oppression, by virtue of their class, caste and gender.
Migrant workers of the biggest industrial estate in Puducherry, Sederapet, have been demanding various industries in the estate to improve working conditions and to adhere to the regulations regarding health and safety. A recent tragic accident, where a worker Ajbar Malik died while working for a company called Ganges Internationale, as a result of the company’s negligence, was the point of trigger for the subsequent workers’ outburst and for the current ongoing struggles.
When the ASHA workers of Uttar Pradesh tried to submit their memorandum of demands to the CM Yogi Adityanath when he came for a program in Shahjahanpur on 9th November, the police not only stopped them from submitting the memorandum, but also brutally attacked them. One of the ASHA workers, Punam Pandey’s hand was broken, was stamped under the boot and was also attacked in the genitals. After physically assaulting the workers, the police filed cases against ASHA workers themselves.
Thousands of construction workers demonstrated on 30th November 2021 before district labour offices in several districts throughout country to observe All India Protest Day at the call of All India Construction Workers Federation (AICWF) against anti-labour, anti-farmer, anti-people policies of the Modi Government.
1. Pension – A Deferred Compensation: Supreme Court
Based on the true story of an adivasi woman desperately trying to find the whereabouts of her husband, who was falsely implicated on theft charges, taken into police custody and reported to be missing, Jai Bhim is a film that is soul stirring and exposing the ugly face of caste oppression, police brutality and opaqueness of legal institutions to common people. In the very first scene, poor families are waiting for the release of their family members from jail.
Amazon workers along with other unions organized series of "Make Amazon Pay" protests in the United States, South Africa, Brazil and across Europe on November 26 (Black Friday) against the inhuman working conditions, company’s exploitative practices and union busting activities.
In this series, various changes sought to be brought in by the proposed labour codes are being discussed. It comes as no surprise that the Codes, brought in clearly show the corporate nature of the state. While issues such as the overbroad exemptions, the excessive delegation and the definitional changes have been discussed previously, this note considers the changing face of the grievance redressal machinery in the Industrial Relations (IR) Code.
The National Convention of Workers was held on 11th November 2021 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, under the banner of Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent sectoral all-India Federations and Associations. The convention began with paying homage to many tall leaders of the Central Trade Unions, Federations/Associations, prominent persons in public life who died during Covid-19 period, the farmers who lost lives during the year long historic kisan agitation, including the recent Lakhimpur Kheri killings, and those people who died because of hate crimes, etc.
Communal Violence against Muslims and the Subsequent Use of UAPA for Hiding the Truth from the World
ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers are part of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched in 2005 to provide rural areas access to better healthcare facilities. ASHA workers form the backbone of this scheme. The scheme was initially designed to make sure that there is ‘doorstep delivery’ of health services to rural communities, and ASHA workers became the veritable foot soldiers of this scheme. The burden of reaching the homes of people in rural areas fell on the shoulders of ASHA workers.
The winter session of parliament is beginning on November 29. This session is likely to take up the key financial issue of privatisation of banks. During 2021-22 budget, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatisation of two nationalised banks and one general insurance company. Accordingly, the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021, was passed in the monsoon session, though the particular insurance company to be privatised had not been identified.
The National Convention of Workers held on 11th November 2021 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, at the initiative of Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent sectoral All India Federations and Associations, gave a call to the working people to heighten the ongoing united struggles to the level of resistance against the desperate pursuit of anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti–people, pro-corporate and anti-national destructive policies by the Government of India which has brought the lives and livelihood of the entire people and the country’s economy to the brink of disaster.
In the new India, Covid-19 pandemic has shown the actual photoscape of miserable government failures at all levels. The unplanned, unprecedented lockdown since March 2020 has brought about a never-ending exodus of migrant labour. Opening new-fields for the Indian multinational companies, the finance-corporate mafia -government nexus has pivoted the pandemic crisis to its advantage, while millions of low waged Indians have hit the new low of continuous uncertainty. There are various sets of data available on the impact of covid pandemic on the migrant workers.
Liability on the Principal Employer to Pay Accident Compensation
- Ranvijay
Bihar State level convention of municipal sanitation workers was held on 10 September 2021 at Patna under the banner of “Bihar Rajya Sthaniya Nikay Karamchari Mahasangh” (Bihar State Local Bodies Employees Federation) affiliated to AICCTU on the topic, "Present Situation and the Role of Municipal Workers". The convention began with paying homage to those who died due to Covid, different industrial accidents and natural disasters.
In 2014, the Modi-led BJP government decided to dissolve the Planning Commission (which was constituted in 1951 along the lines of a socialist model of centralised planning) along with the National Development Council formed to monitor the development of sectors like agriculture, education, health and also national transport systems like Railways, Roadways and Airways. Finally, on the conclusion of the 12th Five Year Plan in 2017, the Planning Commission was dissolved and was replaced by the NITI Ayog (National Institution of Transforming India).
Trade Unions and progressive sections of the society in Sudan have embarked on a General Strike action against the 25 October coup led by army chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan. The coup led to dissolution of the Sovereign Council and the government and the declaration of a state of emergency.
Millions continue to march across Sudan chanting "civilian rule is the people's choice” and "no to military rule" despite massive state repression. As on 26 October, 12 people have been killed and more than 100 injured, as troops fired on thousands of protesters opposing the coup.
Prominent Palestinian Health activist and director of Health Work Committee (HWC) Shatha Odeh was arrested by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on 7 July 2021. She was arrested along with 10 other Palestinians during raids across West Bank as a part of the reprisal attacks by IOF against Palestinian population and activists for resisting the brutal Israeli aggression in May 2021. Another member of HWC Juana Ruiz Sánchez, the project coordinator, has been detained since 13 April 2021.
Beyond the everyday headlines, the United States seems to be heading towards a new wave of labour militancy. Almost every major industry in the US seems to have been hit by the recent mobilization of workers, who are no longer willing to work for poverty wages. While the labour shortage triggered by the restrictions due to COVID-19 is seen as the immediate cause, the roots of the problem lie deep within the economy itself.
Ed Childs started as a dish washer at the Sheraton hotel in Boston 46 years ago. He moved to Harvard University two years later as a dining hall worker. He was in a leadership position initially in the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE). In 2004, Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) merged to become UNITE HERE.
The workers in building and other construction work [BOCW] sector are some of the most marginalized, systemically unsafe and physically exploited. In India, official statistics show that there are 5.1 crores of construction workers across the country, who produce 9% of the annual gross domestic product [GDP]. Certainly, their number and contribution will be even higher.
Narendra Modi and the BJP came to power with a promise that they would double farmers' income by 2022. A committee was constituted in April 2016 to examine issues relating to the doubling of farmers' income. The Committee submitted its report to the government in September 2018 with the aim and strategy for doubling the income of farmers by 2022. The Committee further recommended that farm income has to grow at 10.4 per cent, at constant base-year prices, to achieve the goal.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the countrywide Lockdown in 2020 has been devastating for garment workers. Left without a means of income beginning from March 25, 2020, workers faced multiple blows from transnational apparel corporations to which they produced for, from the factory managements to which they worked for and from state governments that were constitutionally bound to protect the rights of workers.
The draft Delhi Master Plan 2041, released by Delhi Development Authority (DDA), is the fourth plan after 1962, 2001 and 2021. The plan is slated to control certain urban indicators - the ecological balance, equitable and affordable housing, sustainable economic activities etc.
The draft, released at a time when the city is still recovering from the aftermath of the pandemic, sought suggestions and objections within 45 days and later extended for another 30 days on demand. The 450 page document is enforceable by law and valid for the next 20 years.
The life and livelihoods of street vendors have been debilitated post-COVID 19 pandemic. Street vendors who have always been at the receiving end of the State’s wrath through constant spate of evictions from their market places, hafta collections, verbal and physical abuse at the hands of the police, local authorities, and private individuals, have now been deeply affected by the looming economic crisis in the country. Additionally, they are also impacted by the anti-farmer laws as also the growing communal violence and the atmosphere of intolerance in the country.
Given the characteristics of Indian labour market minimum wage becomes very important. Indian labour market is characterized by huge excess supply of unskilled labour. This puts downward pressure on the market wages. Existence of huge excess army of labour may lead to stiff fall in wages, in certain cases, at an abnormally low level. Such low level of wages does not even ensure minimum sustenance and consequently non-fulfilment and reproduction of labour power.
The present coal crisis, which has pushed the thermal power plants to the verge of closure in many states, is another addition to the list of devastating outcomes of the Modi government’s policies over the last more than seven years. Mid-night demonetisation, GST, sudden and unplanned cruel lockdown, handling of Covid-19, NMP and continuous, daily shocks of hikes in fuel prices, to name a few in the series of Modi’s policy decisions which have plunged the nation and its common people in a crisis and devastated people’s lives and livelihoods for the profits of his crony friends.
(Letter written to Prime Minister of India by Platform of central trade unions against the sale of Air India to TATA)
On October 8, your Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey announced at a press conference that the Tata Sons subsidiary, Talace Pvt. Ltd., had won the bid for the national carrier Air India. So in its third attempt, Government of India (incidentally, all under the National Democratic Alliance regime), the earlier bids having been made in the early 2000s and 2017-2018, has managed to get rid of Air India.
The Mid Day Meal scheme was initiated in Jharkhand in 2004-05. The Village Education Committees were entrusted with the responsibility of employing cooks for the scheme. In the initial phase, mere 25-30 paisas were fixed as honorarium for every meal cooked for a student. If meals for 100 school kids were cooked, the total honorarium to be paid was 25 rupees.
It has become a regular feature of the Modi Government to violate existing laws and rules applicable for protection of rights of contract workers as the Railway administration has no viable mechanism to monitor the compliance of statutory laws and rules applicable for contract workers.
West Bengal
Tea Workers Convention Demands Minimum Wages and Land Rights
Abhijit Mazumdar
A mammoth assembly of tea workers, hailing from most of the tea gardens of Terai, Dooars and Darjeeling Hills met at Bhanu Bhawan (Gorkha Rangmanch), Darjeeling town, in a spectacular convention on 11 September 2021. The convention was the culmination of a decision taken at a meeting of the leaders of all tea unions in Siliguri, owing allegiance to the “Joint Forum” of 37 trade unions operating in the tea sector of North Bengal.
Statement against National Monetisation Pipeline by
the Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Sectoral Federations Associations
India Put on Sale by the Ruling Regime at the Centre!
It is the Task of the Working Class to Save India!
On the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the founding of WFTU (World Federation of Trade Unions), on October 3, 1945, for one more year, we honour its history and militant course by promoting the following demands:
DIGNIFIED LIFE today means:
– Public and free healthcare for all
(An abridged version of a more detailed report to be released soon)
“It is true that where the State refrains from intervention what remains is liberty. But this does not dispel of the matter. One more question remains to be answered. To whom and for whom is this liberty? Obviously, this liberty is liberty to the landlords to increase rents, for capitalists to increase hours of work and reduce rate of wages… In other words what is called liberty from the control of the State is another name for the dictatorship of the private employer.”
-Dr B.R. Ambedkar
Compensation to Families of Dalit Workers Who Were Forced to do Manual Scavenging
Agrave crisis is looming large in the jute industry of Bengal on which thousands of workers families and a vast section of jute growers depend on to earn their bread and livelihood. The century-old traditional labor-intensive industry employs more than 2.5 lakh workers. Of late, the textile ministry of central government informed the state that procurement from the industry will be slashed due to the dearth of gunny bags and 45 percent of synthetic bags will be allowed for packaging wheat in the forthcoming rabi season.
Zomato’s recent advertisement took the country by storm. It begins with a Zomato delivery worker in awe of having realized that he was delivering food to the Bollywood star Hritik Roshan, who says “Jadoo (magic), you reach on time no matter the weather, are you anything less than jadoo (magic)?”. The star proceeds to request the worker to wait for a selfie. While waiting, hopeful music engulfs the screen as the worker’s phone rings with his next delivery order. The worker promptly sacrifices the opportunity for a selfie with his hero and walks back into the rain for his next delivery.
(Based on the talk delivered at the webinar hosted by the West Bengal unit of All India Bank Employees’ Association - AIBEA on 15 September 2021)
AICCTU Affiliated Unions Played a Pivotal Role in Several States
The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions, independent sectoral federations and associations congratulate the farmers of India who are relentlessly fighting demanding repeal of the three farm laws, withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 and for legally guaranteed MSP for more than nine months, under the leadership of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM).
AICCTU strongly condemned in unequivocal terms and opposed the passing of the General Insurance Business Nationalisation Amendment Bill 2021 in Parliament by the Modi government. This has paved the way for denationalisation and total privatisation / disinvestment of public sector General Insurance companies which will jeopardise the interests of public, employees and the economy of the nation.
Comrade Ramkishan, a tall and veteran leader of Health Workers Movement and All India Vice President of AICCTU, suddenly passed away on 17 August 2021 while on a morning walk near his home in Shriniwas Puri, Delhi due to massive heart attack at the age of 72. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. His sudden and untimely demise is a great loss to the trade union movement as a whole and particularly to the movement of health employees in the country.
West Bengal
A Protest by Construction Workers of Kolkata
By Atanu
The West Bengal construction workers union organised a demonstration in front of the Office of the labour minister and handed over a memorandum. This demonstration took place on 27 August, despite inclement weather. General body meetings, street corner meetings were held in different places preceding the demonstration.
9th August 2021 (Quit India Movement Day) was observed throughout the country with the participation of lakhs of workers, farmers, women and other sections of people. The clarion call to “Free India from the Clutches of Modi-shahi, Defeat Modi-led Company Raj”, “Save India, Reclaim our Rights”, etc., reverberated across the country. To mark this occasion, AICCTU launched “Save India, Save Workers’ Rights” campaign from 1st August which culminated on 9th August with impressive participation of workers.
Wake up Modi-Kejriwal! Stop exploiting ASHA workers in the name of 'Sewa'!
ASHA workers demand permanent job, fixed salary and social dignity!
The first state conference of Dilli ASHA kamgar Union successfully concluded on 8th August at N.D Tiwari Bhawan, ITO, Delhi. The conference began with paying tribute to all ASHA workers who succumbed to COVID-19, farmers who died in the protest, and the 9-year old Dalit rape victim in Delhi Cantonment area.
NOTE: The strike is withdrawn and put on hold for 20 days from 1st Sep based on assurance from the government and the Chief Minister that the government will issue necessary orders to resolve the issue within 20 days. Workers are fully prepared to relaunch the strike on 21st day if the assurance is not fulfilled.
[Some points of AICCTU objections to the Draft Industrial Relations (Jharkhand) Rules, 2021]
These Rules unfortunately commit the blunder of pushing ease of business at the expense of the working class. It is drafter shoddily and hastily, resulting in a number of safeguards being done away with. AICCTU seeks for a total overhaul and revamp of the rules in light of the fact that labour legislation is intended to be welfare legislation that protects the rights of the working class and not to defeat their rights.
Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA) has become the go-to weapon to intimidate and harass anyone opposed to the Modi government’s core agendas of Hindutva and aggressive neo-liberalism. The arrest of lawyers, intellectuals and activists in the Bhima Koregaon case and the institutional murder of Fr. Stan Swamy yet again highlighted the highly draconian nature of the UAPA and the manner in which it is used to stifle any form of dissent.
Despite the fact that migrant workers are indispensable to the creation of an urban city, the migrant worker as a category has been made constantly invisible. These invisible masses of workers came into the spotlight only during the brutally imposed lockdown, when the country saw an exodus of reverse migration and brutal deaths of hundreds of workers while making the long journey home. Despite their invisibility, the category of migrant workers is massive.
Demonetisation in 2016, ‘Asset Monetisation’ in 2021.
Domestic work, the labour that goes into running a house, has been probably the most unrecognised labour all over the world, throughout the history. Undermining the human hour invested in reproducing labour that generates the so called ‘value’ in the economy has been the most important tool of exploitation and bondage of women. Unfortunately, employing workers from outside the household for domestic work has not solved the problem of crass exploitation, rather it has added dimensions of class and caste based oppression to it.
Food Delivery workers for app-based platforms like Swiggy and Zomato have started taking to social media platforms to air their grievances against the company. The allegations point to exactly the opposite of what the gig-economy and its champions claim. Instead of freedom to work anytime and anywhere that is proclaimed by the platform companies, workers are subjected to an algorithmic surveillance regime that scrutinizes their every move. Let us take a look at the concerns raised by the workers themselves.
Work Hours and Zones:
Challenge to Employees Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014 Referred to 3-judge Bench of Supreme Court
The devastation of the working class has been fast-forwarded during the Covid pandemic. Record level unemployment and a failing economy prior to the pandemic were further accentuated by the authoritarian imposition of the ill-thought lockdown, with the ILO reporting that about 400 million workers in the informal economy were at risk of falling deeper into poverty. The intervening period between the first and second coronavirus waves saw a continuing sharp drop in the labour participation rate.
Resolutions Passed at All-India Convention of Samyukt Kisan Morcha
(An all-India convention of mass organizations was held on the call of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Joint Platform of Farmers), spearheading the farmers’ movement for last 9 months, at Singhu Border of Delhi on 26 and 27 August, 2021. The convention was attended by representatives of organizations of farmers, workers including agriculture workers, women, youth, students, rural poor and tribals. 26th August 2021 marked the completion of 9 months of historic farmers’ movement)
Resolutions
Countrywide protests were organized on 23 July in response to the call given by trade unions against corporatization and privatization of defence sector and ordnance factories and revoking the ordinance banning strikes.
Protest demonstrations and rallies were held in all the states and major centers in the country. A joint protest rally was held in Patna by central trade unions AICCTU, AITUC, CITU, INTUC, AIUTUC and UTUC.
The strike by steel workers, on 30th June 2021, was a great success, on every count, in all plants as well as in related mining areas in the country. The strike was organized to press for the demands of conclusion of long pending wage revision and withdrawal of the policy of disinvestment and privatisation in Steel sector. Despite SAIL being the first PSU to fulfil oxygen needs of the country in the period of pandemic crisis.
Protest Demanding Pending Wages at RIMS, Srikakulam
Indian Railway Employees’ Federation (IREF) affiliated to AICCTU organised a vigorous 15-day Campaign "Save Railways, Save DA, Save Employees" throughout Indian Railways from 1st July, 2021. The campaign culminated on 15th July in protest demonstrations and mass meetings by affiliated unions of IREF in various zones, divisions and production units/workshops including 18 divisions of 9 zonal Railways and 5 production units.
As an encouraging development for the struggle of ASHA workers in Uttarakhand state, the ASHA unions led by AICCTU and CITU, major unions in the state, have given a joint call for a prolonged struggle.
Bangladesh’s economic growth has been branded a miracle in South Asia, growing from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the fastest developing economies comparable to the ‘Asian Tigers’. Recently the per-capita income of Bangladesh surpassed that of India. Much of this growth has been driven by export in garments. However much of the working class has been deprived off the benefits of its own labour as the recent factory fire in Narayanganj demonstrated.
The US must end the inhuman blockade of Cuba!
In June, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to condemn the US led trade embargo against Cuba, with 184 countries supporting an end to the embargo, while 2 opposed it (the US and Israel being the only two opponents). The resolution has passed for the 29th consecutive time in the meeting of the UN General Assembly demonstrating that the voices against global imperialism remain vocal as always.
Introduction
More than 50 years after the enactment of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 [‘1970 Act’], the Government is seeking to grant statutory sanction to the burgeoning contractualisation across public and private sectors. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 [‘OSH Code’], which consolidates a number of beneficial workers legislations including the 1970 Act, practically authorizes the use of contract labour in a number of core, perennial and necessary functions.
The Policy Shift
The new Labour Codes that will repeal 44 Central legislations enacted from 1923 and thereafter, can be characterized very simply, as a hoax. This note will look at the aspect of far-reaching exemptions included in the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 [‘OSH Code’], to show how any benefits provided by the Code are at the mercy of the pro-corporate dispensation.
Exemptions Apparent
Save Industry of Assam Day was observed across Assam on 8 July 2021 to save various industries from closure and privatisation. The special call to observe the Save Industry of Assam Day was issued by Save Industry Save Worker Joint Action Committee (SISW JAC), an independent platform of national trade unions to save paper mills, fertiliser factories, jute mills, tea industries, spinning mills, oil industries, airport and electricity sector.
Forcible Deductions from Pension for CM Relief Fund – Kerala High Court: In Rajan & Anr. V. KSEB & Ors, the High Court of Kerala on 08.07.2021 stated that unauthorized deductions from the pension fund of the petitioners towards contributions to the CM Relief Fund is not permissible unless written consent is taken from the employees.
An Interview with Purushottam Sharma, National Secretary, All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM)
Q: Its been more than 8 months since farmers came to Delhi’s borders with their demands. Modi Government has tried to launch all kinds of offensive against the agitating farmers including its propaganda machinery, instead of engaging in any meaningful talk. How do you see the movement in coming days?
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has brought out its report on trends in global wages during Covid-19. The report examines the change in real wages across the globe in 2020-21, which is a pandemic hit period. The 2020-21 report also analyses impact of implementation of minimum wages on wage inequality.
Important Highlights from the Report
The urban poor of the Delhi-NCR region have been reeling under the disastrous impact of successive lockdowns and the fatal second wave of CoVID. The incessant spells of monsoon rain taking over the city’s roads and spaces have added to their woes. And now the Haryana government has dealt yet another ruthless blow to them - a massive demolition of thousands of houses is currently underway in Khori Gaon situated in Faridabad, administratively under Haryana.
Waste pickers play an important role in waste management in Bengaluru. Waste pickers and informal waste collectors of the city are the backbones of the waste management system. While the municipal waste collection system of the city is supposed to collect 4,000 tons of solid waste that is produced every day, it is estimated that informal workers collect up to 1,050 tons of recyclable material on a daily basis, which amounts to a third of the city’s generated waste.
Steve Gillis is an elected member of the executive board of the Boston School Bus Drivers Union (United Steel Workers/USW Local 8751). He has been a school bus driver for 37 years, elected President of the union for 3 years in 2003, served as Vice President for 6 years and Financial Secretary for the last 6 years.
The recent victory of contract workers of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur College of Nursing (RAKCON) marks a significant milestone in the history of health workers struggle in Delhi. They won in the midst of the COVID pandemic, against criminal negligence by the central government and defying anti-people laws being passed by the Parliament. On 1st February this year, about 40 contractual employees were fired from RAKCON located in Moolchand, Delhi without any notice. Since then, the employees have been waging a battle against the termination.
In yet another move of dismantling the central sector, the Modi Government, in a swift move, decided to convert 41 Ordnance factories into 7 corporations which is expected to lead to privatization eventually. The Government ignored all previous commitments and implemented its well-designed plan of corporatization when negotiations were pending and when the conciliation process was inconclusive.
1 to 9 August 2021- Campaign Across the Country
9 August (Quit India Movement Day)
Countrywide Protest Demonstrations
AICCTU congratulates and salutes the workers of Steel sector for making a big success of the one day strike today (June 30) in all plants, as well as in related mining areas, throughout the country demanding conclusion of long pending wage revision and withdrawal of the policy of disinvestment and privatisation in steel sector. The strike was 80 to 100 % successful, with young and new workers taking a leading role in organising the strike.
(Interview with AICCTU National Secretary and CPIML Karnataka Secretary Clifton D’Rozario, who is also an advocate who has consistently argued Covid-19 and lockdown relief cases in the Karnataka High Court. The interview is reproduced with gratitude from The Third Eye, 18 June 2021)
Can we talk about the Right to Food campaign and the issue of food security as part of public health?
[This is an abridged version of a booklet on Sanitation Workers being brought out by AICCTU]
The lethal second wave of COVID has devastated the country's job market to unimaginable proportions. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has published data exposing the horrific reality of joblessness during the ongoing pandemic and recorded a loss of one crore employment, one of the steepest falls during the last four months!
On 21st June, 2021, the Minister for Health tweeted that India had administered the highest ever single day coverage across the world, with 86.16 lakh on that day.
This is one more in the series of tall claims made by the Government that are mere manipulation of facts and numbers with little actual impact on the ground.
On the 7th June 2021, fire broke out in a chemical factory situated in the village Urawade on the way to the infamous “Lavasa” city, constructed on the usurped lands with active political support of the neo liberal ruling classes and the land mafia in Maharashtra. This fire consumed 15 female and 2 male workers, out of 37 working in a 12 hours shift from 7 am to 7 pm. It became difficult even to identify each of them as the charred remains necessitated DNA tests. They were all from rural families around the factory.
Central Government has published draft Industrial Relations (Central) Recognition of Negotiating Union or Negotiating Council and Adjudication of Disputes of Trade Unions Rules 2021 on 04/05/2021, seeking comments within 30 days. At the very outset, it well exemplifies the callous attitude of the Government in issuing these Rules at a time when the country is worst hit by the second wave of the COVID Pandemic, with more than 3 lakh deaths across the country.
I. Introduction
Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, affirms that “everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security”. This right is snatched away by the recent passage of the Code on Social Security, 2020 (CSS). The CSS may seem to increase coverage, but actually dilutes workers’ rights.
II. Attack on Federalism
Modi led, pro-corporate, BJP government decided to split Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) into 7 corporations on 16 June 2021, once again attempting to convert pandemic crisis into an opportunity for the corporates.
Hands Off the 8-Hour Day! Withdraw the anti-worker Bill!
7 June 2021
The working class and toiling masses of Greece will embark on an historic General Strike on June 10 against the anti-labour Bill proposed by the conservative New Democracy (ND) government. The Bill introduces several anti-worker measures, including increasing working hours from 8 to 10 hours per day, scrapping the five-day work-week and curtailing the right to strike. The proposed bill is a barbaric attack on the rights of workers, hard earned through long struggles.
As a part of an all-India campaign “In Memory of Loved Ones: Count Every Death, Share Every Loss”, jointly organized by intellectuals and social activists across the country, various sections of workers, including scheme workers, railway employees, sanitation and municipal workers and other unorganised and organised sections honoured the memory of people who died during the Covid period by lighting candles and remembering every death.
On 14th June, 2021, the Farmers' agitation, led by Samyukta Kisan Morcha completed 200 days of continuous protest on and occupation of main highways leading into national capital Delhi, for their demands to repeal three farm laws, taking back the Electricity (Amendment) Ordnance, 2021 and legal guarantee for the MSP.
Front-line Workers Demand Day
Scheme Workers
[Charter of Demands Submitted by Coal Mines Workers Union (CMWU), affiliated to AICCTU, to the Ministry of Coal on 23 June 2021 for Wage Agreement in Coal Industry (NCWA-11)]
Orientation
In view of the CIL’s plan of large scale and systematic retrenchment of coal workers, we consider that a big question mark has been put before the very purpose of wage negotiation and wage agreement. Therefore, we demand that the process of privatization of coal industry and retrenchment of workers must be stopped immediately.
Representation
Frontline leader of the CPIML movement, former member of the Polit Bureau, former Bihar State Secretary and popular Marxist teacher Comrade Ramjatan Sharma passed away at the Indira Gandhi Heart Institute in Patna on 6 June 2021 after a heart attack.
On 14th June, 2021, the Farmers' agitation, led by Samyukta Kisan Morcha completed 200 days of continuous protest on and occupation of main highways leading into national capital Delhi, for their demands to repeal three farm laws, taking back the Electricity (Amendment) Ordnance, 2021 and legal guarantee for the MSP.
Comrade Lakshmanbhai Patanwadia, a senior Communist leader from Gujarat, a member of CPI-ML State leading team and AICCTU Central Working Committee, passed away on 4th May 2021 at a hospital in Ahmedabad. Three days ago, he tested positive for Covid and was undergoing treatment at the hospital since then.
Comrade Patanwadia was a strong voice in Gujarat against communal fascism. His demise is an irreparable loss to the revolutionary people's movement and the trade union movement in Gujarat.
Long live Comrade Lakshmanbhai Patanwadia!
Demand Day organized across Jharkhand
AICCTU organized a one-day dharna (sit-in) across Jharkhand on 18 May to demand resolution of problems faced by daily wagers and Corona frontline workers during Covid pandemic. AICCTU leaders and activists held dharna at the AICCTU office in Ranchi following all Covid protocols.
AICCTU Karnataka Releases Report on Workers in the Second Wave
On 18th May, 2021, the AICCTU released its report, which was brought out in collaboration with the Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) and the Domestic Workers Rights Union – “Workers in the Second Wave – The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on local and migrant workers in Bengaluru”. It highlighted the manner in which the working class and economically weaker sections are battling not only to save their lives, but struggling to secure livelihoods.
May Day Observance at tea garden
Braving thunderstorm and rains, nearly 100 workers assembled at Dipa Line of Sachindra Chandra Tea Estate in Khoribari, Darjeeling district to observe historic May Day.
May Day Protests
May Day Demonstrations of workers of AICCTU affiliated unions were held in major towns and mandal (block) headquarters of Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool, Guntoor, Krishna, East Godavari, Vizag and Srikakulam districts of Andhra Pradesh and Janagaon, Hyderabad districts of Telangana under. Workers from various sectors - Construction, Hospital Sanitation, Anganwadi, Auto union, School sanitation and MDM workers – hoisted the flags and joined May Day protest with firm resolve to scrap anti worker labour codes and anti-farmer Farm laws, observing Covid protocols.
May Day 2021
AICCTU cadres observed May day throughout Tamil Nadu by hoisting flags in offices, factories and localities despite the code of conduct was in force in view of counting of votes on 2nd May. The state secretary of CPI ML also wrote a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer of the state to allow May day events without any hindrance. Other left parties also wrote similar letters in this connection.
Spain approved a pioneering law on 11 May that gives delivery platforms a mid-August deadline to hire workers currently freelancing for them and that requires transparency of artificial intelligence used to manage workforces.
The royal decree passed by the centre-left ruling coalition immediately affects some 30,000 couriers. It comes in the wake of a ruling by Spain's top court last year and at a time when other countries in Europe and elsewhere are deciding on a labour model for the so-called gig economy, which is often blamed for precarious jobs and low salaries.
After a seven-day strike, the Trade Union of Construction, Paving and Earth Movement Industries Workers of the State of Ceará (SINTEPAV-CE) inked a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with companies operating the Solar Alex Project in Ceará, Brazil.
The union won an increase in workers’ wages by 10 percent and increased monthly bonuses from R$ 450 to R$ 600 (about USD 110). Overtime pay was also increased by 60 percent during the week and 100 percent on Saturdays.
In an exemplary move of solidarity with Palestinians, after discovering that a shipment of arms destined for Israel was arriving in Italy’s ports, workers organized in one of Italy’s main unions, L'Unione Sindacale di Base, and other workers’ organizations refused to load the ship in support of the Palestinians fighting for their lives against Israeli occupation.
Colombia is witnessing massive protests and general strike since April 28 against the regressive proposals of tax reforms and privatization of healthcare by government of Ivan Duque. Hand in glove with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United States, Duque government had been spearheading neoliberal agenda in Colombia by robbing jobs, livelihood and rights of the people.
The people in the occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza are facing a new wave of brutal aggression by Israel apartheid regime since the night of May 10, 2021. More than 250 people have been killed including 66 children and 38 women. The aggression comes as a further blow to the people in Gaza who are already reeling under devastating humanitarian crisis due to the ongoing land-air-sea blockade and continuous bombings by Israel that has destroyed Gaza’s most of the vital infrastructures.
On 25th May, Indian Railway Employees' Federation (IREF)(affiliated to AICCTU) with all its affiliates in Zonal Railways and Production Units staged protests throughout Indian Railways to highlight eight demands arising out of their burning issues:
History of the Indian Railways gangmen dates back to the days of British imperialism when the first railway track was laid between Boribunder (Mumbai) and Thane in 1853. Poor Peasants having been uprooted from the land, left their villages for livelihood and got themselves engaged as labourers by a private railway company under the East India Company in laying railway tracks. Even in plague-affected areas they were forced to work hard without medical aid.
Almost one crore scheme workers all over the country shoulder the burden of implementing several important public schemes of the central government on health and education. They include ASHA workers (working under National Rural Health Mission program), Anganvadi workers (working under ICDS program) and MDM workers (working under Mid Day Meal scheme for school children). Almost 95% of the scheme workers in the country are women. These scheme workers are the backbone in ensuring basic health and nutrition to vast majority of the country’s population.
While the Modi-2 government at centre is being rightly held responsible for Corona-2 catastrophe in the country by people’s movements, the virtual collapse of India's public health care system in the face of 2nd wave has become a worrisome point. This wave of Corona pandemic has absolutely exposed the hollowness of our country’s public health care system and the criminally apathetic attitude of the ‘elected’ rulers towards the health care of common people.
They are not just cajoling Corporations, Beware!
They are implementing an integral design of
Arms Sales of Hindu Rashtra!
[This is a foreword by Comrade Shankar V, all India president of AICCTU, to a book written in Tamil titled, “The Fall of Ordnance Establishments and its Implications” by a long time trade union and worker activist, Comrade Azhageshwaran, of Ordnance Factory at Trichy (OFT), Tamil Nadu]
The central government has recently passed four anti-Labour Codes that, in the name of ‘ease of doing business’, effectively crush the hard-won rights of the working class. One such right that has been heavily impaired is the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain. It has been done through the heavily problematic provisions in the Industrial Relations Code (hereinafter the Code) which replaces the Industrial Disputes Act (ID Act), 1947, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 and the Trade Unions Act, 1926.
While everyone is speaking about the doctors and nurses, who are most definitely working on the frontlines and whose services are, of course, laudable during this pandemic, it is necessary for us to remember the frontline workers who are often neglected – the Safai Karamcharis / Sanitation Workers, the D-Group workers in hospitals, ASHA Workers and Crematorium workers.
People of West Bengal, particularly the working class of the state voted decisively and conclusively against the BJP during the recently concluded assembly election. Political observers are of the opinion that this is a defeat of Modi - Amit Shah duopoly, who travelled by air to this state in the thick of election like daily passengers and who frantically tried to capture Bengal. It was also held as a befitting reply to the EC, which was shamelessly bent in favour of Modi and BJP dragging the polls for 8 phases amid raging second wave of COVID.
This is a well-documented report that has analysed the impact of one year of Covid-19 in India, on jobs, incomes, inequality, and poverty. The rising inequality and loss of wages is really alarming. It says, “our analysis shows that the pandemic has further increased informality and led to a severe decline in earnings for the majority of workers resulting in a sudden increase in poverty. Women and younger workers have been disproportionately affected. Households have coped by reducing food intake, borrowing, and selling assets.
With an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths during the 2nd wave of the pandemic, the country is facing an inordinate stress on crematoriums and cemeteries for disposal of the dead. We continue to hear the news of how local authorities are identifying mass cremation centers to deal with the situation or how electric crematoriums are breaking down due to the load and cities are running out of burial space.
The deadly Covid wave of April-May 2021 hit Delhi very badly after receding in last December. According to official data, infection rate this time was as high as adding 28,395 new cases each day in mid-April. And the death rate was as high as 448 each day in early May.
As of May 15, 2021, Karnataka had 6,05,494 active COVID-19 cases and had 21,434 COVID-19 deaths. Of these, more than 60% of the active COVID-19 cases i.e. 3,66,791 were in Bengaluru alone. There were 9340 COVID-19 deaths in Bengaluru.
‘Dignity Disposed’ is a report on crematorium and burial ground workers in Bengaluru city. The report documents how generations of (almost all) Dalit workers have been compelled to work in slave-like conditions to give the rest of the city a final good-bye.
BEFORE THE HON’BLE KARNATAKA HIGH COURT AT BENGALURU
Writ Petition No. 6435 of 2020 (PIL) and Connected Petitions
Between:
Mohammed Arif Jameel & Anr. … Petitioners
And:
Comrade Achintya Sinha - Senior Member of the All India Secretariat of AIUTUC and a veteran trade union leader, breathed his last at Calcutta on 16 April 2021 at the age of 75 years due to multiple organ failure being infected by Covid19. He was associated for a long period in the trade union movement of the various sections of the working people across the country. His demise is a big loss to the TU movement of country.
AICCTU conveys its deepest condolences.
Red salute to Com. Achintya Sinha!
Comrade Bhalchandra Kerkar is no more. He fell to Covid19 on 25 April morning in a Pune hospital. We have lost a long-standing well-wisher and close friend of the AICCTU and CPI-ML, a senior leader of LIC employees’ movement and member of the Central Committee of Lal Nishan Party (Leninist) of Maharashtra.
He took keen interest in organising a whole range of informal sector workers. He was also founding president of Domestic workers’ union in Pune.
He used to closely follow the advances, and set¬backs, of the communist movement internationally.
World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)
www.wftucentral.org
Athens 26.42021
To our comrades, our brothers and sisters in India
Dear comrades
The devastating news that daily we read about India are shocking beyond any human imagination
On April 17, 2021, five workers were killed and more than 50 injured when police in Banshkhali, southeast of Bangladesh opened fire on a protest by thousands of contract workers of a coal-based power plant. The workers were holding a protest demanding payment of unpaid wages, better working condition and reduced work hours during the month of Ramzan.
The Joint Meeting of the Platform of Central Trade Unions & Sectoral Federations/Associations with Samyukta Kisan Morcha held on-line on 28th April 2021 unanimously resolved to carry forward and intensify the united workers-peasants struggle against the anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-worker destructive policies of the Central Govt.
Excerpts of an interview with Sumanti Ekka, a 26 year old tea worker of Darjeeling district, West Bengal, recorded by Saswati Sengupta on 5 April 2021)
The Wages Code, 2019 and the Draft Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2020 puts forward a direct assault on the most fundamental rights of workers. One of these is the right of workers to minimum wages, which this article concentrates on.
When the pandemic is raging the state with all ferocity, when health system is collapsing fast, the mill owners are closing the jute mills one after another in West Bengal causing severe resentment among workers and throwing thousands and thousands of workers' out of employment.
Books on defence civilian employees' trade union movement, defence policies and on Indian American military relations were released in a function at Trichy on 28 April on the eve of retirement of Comrade Azhageshwaran, a Marxist - Leninist thinker, emerged from the ranks of working class in defence sector. He was also a renowned trade union leader of ordnance factory, Trichirappalli, for more than 25 years. He was the president of Ordnance factory employees' Union, affiliated to AIDEF, but represented a trend of revolutionary trade unionism in defence employees’ movement.
“Life of an IT Professional -
Born
Study
Job
‘Shall I share my screen?’
‘Am I audible now?’
‘Correct me if I’m wrong’
‘Did you receive my email?’
‘Ok, I’ll fix the code and send the status by EOD.’
Meeting Deadlines of work.
India is now in the grip of an unprecedented health emergency. The countrywide second surge of coronavirus caught the Modi government napping and exposed the callous unpreparedness of Modi's mode of governance where insensitiveness, apathy and criminal nonchalance are the essential ingredients of this fascist regime. While the WHO cautioned India of an imminent second wave, and predicted it to be more virulent, the despot duopoly had their other priorities and set out for a royal hunt to Bengal with the sole aim of grabbing the state power in the assembly election.
The stage is all set for one day strike in all units of SAIL (Steel Authority of India Ltd) on 6th May 2021 on the demand of pay revision. All the unions affiliated to central trade unions, namely CITU, AITUC, HMS and AICCTU have already served strike notices to the management. Notices have been served in mines also. So far as INTUC is concerned, it has not served strike notices in steel plants in Bokaro, Bhilai and Durgapur, but has served the notice in Rourkela, Vishakhapattanam and Alloy Steel Plant, Chandrapur.
As millions of the people in the country are battling for life every day in the second wave of Covid-19 upsurge, the NITI Ayog and the Finance Ministry are finalising plans to privatise selected Public Sector Banks (PSBs). This comes as part of the 1.75 lakh crore disinvestment plan for the 2022 financial year. Disinvestment or sell out of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), that the country had built over the years since independence, is the most important marker of the disastrous Modinomics.
We are commemorating May Day 2021 when the second wave of the pan
Launch of Web Magazine, "Workers Resistance" by AICCTU today, May Day 2021
Dear comrades, friends and readers,
It's a long felt need to launch a magazine in English by AICCTU. We vaguely remember some initial attempts to bring out a news letter that proved to be a non-starter. We had magazines in many vernacular languages including Hindi, Bangla, Assamese and also in Tamil. Our Hindi magazine *"Shramik Solidarity"* is very regular and consistent. Tamil magazine was also very regular but for some temporary break recently. But, we were never successful in publishing an English magazine.
बिहार के चर्चित वामपंथी नेता गणेश शंकर विद्यार्थी का विगत 12 जनवरी 2021 को पटना के एक निजी नर्सिंग होम में निधन हो गया.
उनका निधन कोरोना के चलते हुआ. वे 96 वर्ष के थे. उनकी अंत्येष्टि कोरोना प्रोटोकॉल का पालन करते हुए पटना के बांस घाट पर की गई.
अपनी विभिन्न समस्याओं व मांगों को लेकर 16 जनवरी को ई-रिक्शा चालक यूनियन (संबद्ध ऐक्टू) के बैनर तले बड़ी संख्या में चालकों ने जिला पदाधिकारी, भागलपुर (बिहार) के समक्ष धरना दिया. धरना की अध्यक्षता यूनियन के अध्यक्ष सह ऐक्टू के राज्य सचिव मुकेश मुक्त ने की.
भारत के कुख्यात गोदी मीडिया - मीडिया की वह शाखा, जो न केवल लोकतंत्र के हितों के खिलाफ सत्ता की तरफ से काम करती है, बल्कि जो नफरत व झूठ फैलाने के लिए चौबीसों घंटे फासिस्ट ताकतों के साथ सांठगांठ कर प्रचार युद्ध में हिंसक हमलावरों की भूमिका अदा करती है, तथ्यों में तोड़-मरोड़ करती है और विरोधियों पर शैतानी चेहरा चढ़ाती है - के एक क्रूर सदस्य अर्नब गोस्वामी को आखिरकार अपनी खुद की दवा की यथोचित खुराक मिल गई है. एक लंबे समय से वह ई-मेल और व्हाट्सऐच चैट के जरिये चंद रहस्योद्घाटनों का इस्तेमाल कर मोदी-शाह सत्ता प्रतिष्ठान और संघ ब्रिगेड की तरफ से मीडिया ट्रायल चला रहा है.
अमेरिकी लोग (तत्कालीन) राष्ट्रपति ट्रंप के असफल तख्तपलट प्रयासों के बाद की घटनाओं से अभी तक निपट ही रहे हैं, और इसी के साथ समूची दुनिया के लिए चेतावनी की घंटी बज रही है कि वैश्विक पूंजीवाद के बढ़ते संकट के साथ-साथ संसदीय लोकतंत्र पर खतरा भी सर्वत्र मंडराने लगा है - खासकर तब, जबकि वैश्विक महामारी लगातार दूसरे वर्ष दुनिया को अपनी चपेट में लेने को तैयार है.
तीन कृषि कानूनों के खिलाफ जारी किसान आंदोलन और उस पर उच्चतम न्यायालय की टिप्पणियों की चर्चा के बीच एक और खबर पर गौर कीजिये. खबर यूं है कि कर्नाटक में रिलायंस किसानों से 1000 क्विंटल धान सरकार द्वारा घोषित एमएसपी से 82 रुपया अधिक पर खरीदेगा. अंग्रेजी मीडिया में इसकी खूब चर्चा की गई. संघी विचार की वेबसाइट-ओप इंडिया ने तो इस खबर के बहाने कृषि कानूनों को बड़ा हितकारी बताया है.
‘‘कृषि बाजार कानून से किसानों का नहीं बल्कि आम आदमी का भी बड़ा नुकसान होगा. कृषि उपज विपणन समितियों (एपीएमसी) को हटाना सरकारी स्कूल को हटाने जैसा हैं, प्राइवेट स्कूलों को बढ़ावा देने जैसा है. बिहार के पुराने कृषि उपज विपणन समिति सम्बन्धी कानून को पुनः बहाल करना चाहिए.’’
ये विचार पटना में कृषि विशेषज्ञ पी. साईनाथ ने दो अलग-अलग कार्यक्रमों में व्यक्त किए. उन्होंने कहा कि ‘कृषि बाजार कानून’ से किसानों का ही नहीं बल्कि आम आदमी का भी बड़ा नुकसान होगा. इससे गरीब आदमी के लिए चल रही जन वितरण प्रणाली (पीडीएस) भी प्रभावित होने वाली है.
प्रधानमंत्री की बहुप्रचारित किसान सम्मान योजना के तहत, भूमिहीनों व गरीब किसानों को छोड़कर, 6000 रु. वार्षिक/किसान परिवार देने की घोषणा की गई अर्थात 500रु. प्रति परिवार प्रति माह. ज्ञात हो देश के किसी किसान ने सरकार से इस राशि की मांग नहीं की थी. फिर सरकार किसानों पर अचानक इतना मेहरबान क्यों हो गई? आइए जरा गौर करें, सरकार किसानों से कितना ले रही है और कितना उनको दे रही है.
5 जनवरी की भयानक ठंड में सिंघू, टिकरी और गाजीपुर के प्रतिवाद स्थलों पर किसान देर रात तक जागते हुए परेड की तैयारी और अपने ट्रैक्टरों व ट्रॉलियों को सजाने में लगे हुए थे.
26 जनवरी को टिकरी में अखिल भारतीय किसान महासभा के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष रूल्दू सिंह के साथ -साथ गुरनाम सिंह और जसबीर कौर नत ट्रैक्टर परेड की अगली पांत में मौजूद थे. गाजीपुर में किसान महासभा के महासचिव राजाराम सिंह के साथ उत्तराखंड से पुरुषोत्तम शर्मा और उत्तर प्रदेश से ईश्वरी प्रसाद कुशवाहा परेड की अगली पांत में थे.
गरीबी उन्मूलन के लिए काम करने वाली संस्था ऑक्सफैम ने कहा है कि कोरोना वायरस महामारी के चलते लगाए गए लॉकडाउन के दौरान भारतीय अरबपतियों की दौलत 35 प्रतिशत बढ़ गई, जबकि इस दौरान करोड़ों लोगों के लिए आजीविका का संकट पैदा हो गया. ऑक्सफैम की रिपोर्ट ‘इन्इक्वालिटी वायरस’ (असमानता का वायरस) में कहा गया कि ‘मार्च 2020 के बाद की अवधि में भारत में 100 अरबपतियों की संपत्ति में 12,97,822 करोड़ रुपये की वृद्धि हुई है.
(20 जनवरी 2021 को भारत सरकार के श्रम मंत्री ने श्रम कोडों के नियमों पर चर्चा के लिये केंद्रीय ट्रेड यूनियनों को श्रम मंत्रालय में बैठक के लिये बुलाया. बैठक में ट्रेड यूनियनों के संयुक्त मंच ने श्रम कोडों पर रोक लगाने की मांग करते हुए नियमों पर चर्चा करने से इंकार कर दिया. प्रस्तुत है संयुक्त मंच द्वारा दिया गया पत्र और बयानः)
(2 फरवरी को पेश हुए बजट के जवाब में केन्द्रीय ट्रेड यूनियनों और क्षेत्रवार फेडरेशनों/एसोसिएशनों के साझा मंच का बयान)
वित्त मंत्री द्वारा पेश किया गया बजट लफ्फाजी से भरा हुआ और जमीनी सच्चाई से कोसों दूर है. यह पूरी तरह छलावे से भरा और राष्ट्रीय अर्थव्यवस्था के लिये विनाशकारी है, साथ ही मेहनतकश अवाम की पीड़ाओं के प्रति क्रूर ढंग से संवेदनहीन है. वित्त मंत्री ने सरकार के आर्थिक सर्वे के उस दावे को दोहराया है कि श्रम कोड मजदूरों के लिए अच्छे हैं, और ठीक इसी तरह कृषि कानूनों की भी तारीफ की गई है. उन्होंने असल में मई 2020 को प्रस्तुत अपने छलावे भरे पैकेजों को ही आगे बढ़ाया है.
आधुनिक लोकतांत्रिक गणतंत्र के रूप में स्वतंत्र भारत की यात्रा 26 जनवरी 1950 से शुरू होती है, जब भारत का संविधान लागू हुआ था - वह संविधान जिसे ‘हम भारत के लोग’ ने स्वीकार किया और जिसमें भारत को एक संप्रभु, लोकतांत्रिक गणतंत्र के रूप में निर्मित करने और इसके तमाम नागरिकों के लिए मुकम्मल न्याय, स्वतंत्रता, समानता व भाईचारा की गारंटी करने का संकल्प लिया गया है. भारतीय गणतंत्र दिवस की 71वीं वर्षगांठ इस बात का गवाह है कि भारत के किसानों और अन्य नागरिकों ने मिलकर किस प्रकार जनता की एकता, संकल्प व शक्ति के अभूतपूर्व प्रदर्शन के साथ भारतीय संविधान की इस गणतांत्रिक भावना को पुनर्जागृत किया.
कर्मठ मजदूर नेता कामरेड गणेश पासवान ने स्थानीय भीखनपुर (भागलपुर, बिहार) स्थित अपने किराए के कमरे में 29 दिसम्बर को सुबह करीब 6 बजे अपनी अन्तिम सांस ली. उनके निधन की खबर से मजदूर कतारों में शोक की गहरी लहर दौड़ गयी. सैकड़ों मजदूरों ने उनके निवास स्थान पर पहुंच कर शोक जताया.
वरिष्ठ मजदूर नेता कामरेड अनंतराम बाजपेई का 85 वर्ष की आयु में 29 दिसंबर 2020 को सुबह 4 बजे निधन हो गया. वे वर्ष 1982 में स्थापित कानपुर टेक्सटाइल मजदूर एकता मंच के संस्थापक अध्यक्ष थे और अपने अंतिम समय तक रहे. वे सन् 1980 से उत्तर प्रदेश टेंपो-टैक्सी यूनियन के अध्यक्ष रहे और उन्होंने टेंपो-टैक्सी कर्मियों की बड़ी-बड़ी लड़ाइयों को नेतृत्व दिया. ये दोनों यूनियनें बाद में ऐक्टू से संबद्ध हुईं. वे कानपुर के ऐतिहासिक रेल रोको आंदोलन में नेतृत्वकारी भूमिका में रहे. वे ऐक्टू के राष्ट्रीय पार्षद भी रहे. उन्होंने अपना पूरा जीवन मेहनतकश जनता के अधिकारों को बुलंद करने के लिए समर्पित कर दिया.
स्कूलों में बच्चों को पोषण आहार मिड-डे मील उपलब्ध कराने वाले रसोइयों को इलाहाबाद हाईकोर्ट ने बड़ी राहत दी है. हाई कोर्ट ने परिषदीय स्कूलों में काम करने वाले इन रसोइयों को अब न्यूनतम मजदूरी से अधिक वेतन का भुगतान करने का महत्वपूर्ण फैसला दिया है. कोर्ट ने प्रदेश में सभी रसोइयों को न्यूनतम वेतन भुगतान का निर्देश दिया है. इस आदेश से रसोइयों के वेतन में बढ़ोत्तरी हो सकेगी.
28 दिसंबर को ऐक्टू से संबद्ध ‘‘झारखंड राज्य विद्यालय रसोईया संघ’’ के बैनर तले डाल्टेनगंज शहर में रसोइयों (मिड-डे मील कर्मियों) ने मार्च करते हुए जिला मुख्यालय पर एक दिवसीय ‘‘वादा निभाओ’’ धरना कार्यक्रम आयोजित किया.
22 दिसंबर 2020 की देर रात को उत्तर प्रदेश के फूलपुर स्थित इंडियन फॉर्मर्स फर्टिलाइजर कोऑपरेटिव लि. (इफ्को खाद कारखाने) में हुए अमोनिया गैस रिसाव से दो अधिकारियों की मौत हो गई. उनकी मौत गैस रिसाव को विकराल होने से रोकने के दौरान दम घुट जाने से हुई. करीब डेढ़ दर्जन कर्मचारी इससे बुरी तरह प्रभावित हुए. यदि रिसाव पर काबू न पाया गया होता तो नजारा कुछ-कुछ भोपाल गैस कांड जैसा हो सकता था. सुरक्षा मानकों के कड़ाई से अनुपालन और ऐसे नाजुक मौकों पर उपयोग में लाये जाने वाले उपकरणों की पर्याप्त उपलब्धता सुनिश्चित की गई होती, तो ये जानें बचाई जा सकती थीं.
ऑस्ट्रेलिया के ‘अडानी रोको’ अभियान ने एक जन आंदोलन के रूप में पिछले दस वर्षों से अदानी कंपनी के देश के पर्यावरण को नष्ट करने वाले कोयला खदान खोदने के प्रोजेक्ट को रोका हुआ है. ‘अदानी रोको’ अभियान भारत के प्रधानमंत्री और गौतम अडानी के कृषि कानूनों के खिलाफ भारतीय किसानों के शांतिपूर्ण आंदोलन के साथ खड़ा है.
(पुरूषोत्तम शर्मा, सचिव, अखिल भारतीय किसान महासभा के लेख का एक अंश)
(आईआर- औद्योगिक संबंध- कोड 2020 मोदी सरकार द्वारा कोरोना काल और लॉकडाउन के बीचोंबीच दो अन्य श्रम कोडों के साथ 14 सितंबर से बुलाये गये एक हफ्ते के संसद सत्र में पास करवाकर कानून बना दिये गये है. कोरोना संकट को कॉरपोरेट घरानों के लिये अवसर में बदलने के अपने सिद्वांत के तहत, अब मोदी सरकार के श्रम मंत्रालय ने इसी दौर में ही इस कानून की केंद्रीय नियमावली का मसौदा तैयार कर सार्वजनिक पटल में ला दिया है और ट्रेड यूनियन संगठनों से आपत्तियां मंगाई हैं. सरकार के इस रवैये का विरोध करते हुए, इस मसौदे पर अपनी आपत्तियां के रूप में जवाब ऐक्टू द्वारा सरकार को भेजा गया है, जो नीचे प्रस्तुत है.)
ऐक्टू की जांच टीम ने नारसापुरा औद्योगिक क्षेत्र (कोलार ज़िला, कर्नाटक) का दौरा किया और वहां 12 दिसंबर 2020 की घटना के संदर्भ में मजदूरों से मुलाकात की. इस घटना में विस्ट्रॉन फैक्टरी के हजारों मजदूरों ने अपनी कई मांगों के लिए प्रदर्शन किया था जिसमें फैक्टरी की संपत्ति को नुकसान पहुंचा था और पुलिस ने मजदूरों के खिलाफ कार्रवाई की थी. यह घटना राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर मीडिया की सुर्खियों में आई.
बीसवीं सदी के प्रथमार्ध में विश्व युद्धों के महाविनाश के बाद वर्ष 2020 से अधिक कठिन और चुनौतीपूर्ण साल दुनिया ने संभवतः नहीं देखा होगा. असाधारण सार्वजनिक स्वास्थ्य आपातस्थिति ने पूरी दुनिया में 10 लाख से भी ज्यादा लोगों की जान ले ली है और सामान्य सामाजिक जीवन तथा आर्थिक क्रियाकलाप ठप हो गये, क्योंकि एक के बाद दूसरे देश ने हफ्तों और महीनों तक विभिन्न स्तरों पर लॉकडाउन लगाकर वैश्विक महामारी की रोकथाम करने का प्रयास चलाया.
सरकार के पास किसानों को पीटने के लिए डंडे हैं, उन्हें लहूलुहान करने के लिए कंटीले तार हैं, वाटर कैनन हैं - ये सब किसानों पर लगातार प्रयोग किये जा रहे हैं।
ऐसी किसान-मज़दूर विरोधी संघी सरकार को उखाड़ फेंकना सभी का फर्ज है !!
लड़ेंगे जीतेंगे !!
26 नवम्बर 2020 की देशव्यापी हड़ताल को सफल करो
- कोयला, रेल, डिफेंस, बैंकिंग इत्यादि
सेक्टरों का निजीकरण - कॉर्पोरेटीकरण नहीं चलेगा !!
- श्रम अधिकारों को खत्म करने के लिए लाये
गए सभी श्रम कोड अधिनियम निरस्त करो !!
- जनता की संपत्ति निजी हाथों में सौंपना नहीं चलेगा !!
दिल्ली के कामरेड नेक सिंह और कामरेड के.सी. वर्मा ऐक्टू से जुड़े हुए पुराने साथी थे. उनका अक्तूबर माह में निधन हो गया. वे दिल्ली परिवहन निगम में कार्यरत थे. वे वहां से सेवानिवृत्त हो चुके थे. वे ऐक्टू से संबद्ध डीटीसी वर्कर्स यूनिटी सेंटर में सक्रिय थे.
कामरेड नेक सिंह और कामरेड के.सी. वर्मा को लाल सलाम!
का. नीलंजन भट्टाचार्य जो नीलू के नाम से जाने जाते थे, का 47 वर्ष की आयु में 12 अक्टूबर को दिल का दौरा पड़ने से अचानक निधन हो गया. वे भाकपा-माले के उड़ीसा राज्य कमेटी के सदस्य थे और वर्तमान में कालाहांडी जिले में प्रमुख संगठक के बतौर कार्यरत थे. वे छात्र जीवन से ही पार्टी में पूर्णकालिक कार्यकर्ता के बतौर कार्यरत थे. का. नीलू का असामायिक निधन पार्टी और खेत मजदूर आंदोलन के लिये भारी क्षति है.
कामरेड नीलू को लाल सलाम!
डब्लूएफटीयू के 75 वर्ष पूरे होने के मौके पर इससे संबद्ध भारत के केंद्रीय ट्रेड यूनियन संगठनों द्वारा 3 अक्टबूर, 2020 को देशभर में कार्यक्रम आयोजित किए गए. कोरोना महामारी एवं लॉकडाउन से पैदा हुई सीमाओं में सीमित भागीदारी के साथ ये कार्यक्रम हुए. दिल्ली में आयोजित कन्वेंशन को एटक से अमरजीत कौर, सीटू से तपन सेन, ऐक्टू से संतोष राय, एआईयूटीयूसी से आर.के. शर्मा और यूटीयूसी से आर.एस. डागर ने संबोधित किया.
अरबपतियों के पास देश के कुल बजट से भी अधिक सपंत्ति है. इन एक प्रतिशत सबसे अमीर लोगों के पास देश की कम आय वाली 70 प्रतिशत आबादी यानी 95.3 करोड़ लोगों की तुलना में चार गुने से अधिक संपत्ति है. एक अध्ययन में इस साल 20 जनवरी को इसका खुलासा किया गया था. परंतु ध्यान देने योग्य यह है कि अक्टूबर 2020 में जारी फोर्ब्स की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार कोरोना महामारी काल में जब पूरी देश की आबादी एवं अर्थव्यवस्था बदहाल हो गई है तो मोदी कृपा से देश के 100 धन्नासेठों की संपत्ति में 14 प्रतिशत वृद्धि हुई है. 8 अक्टूबर को फोब्र्स द्वारा जारी देश के 100 धनिकों की सूची से यह खुलासा हुआ है.
भारत सरकार के वित्त मंत्रालय द्वारा एक आरटीआई के आधार पर 24 अगस्त 2020 को दी गई जानकारी के अनुसार निम्नलिखित 26 सार्वजनिक क्षेत्र कंपनियों में सरकार रणनीतिक विनिवेश (यानी पूर्ण बिक्री) को अंजाम दे रही है. ये कंपनियां हैंः
8 अक्टूबर 2020 को पटियाला में भाकपा-माले और ऐक्टू द्वारा ‘‘महिला कर्ज मुक्ति रैली’’ आयोजित कर मोदी सरकार पर राष्ट्रवाद और ‘आत्मनिर्भर’ भारत के नाम पर देश में कंपनी राज को फिर से लाने का आरोप लगाया. पटियाला के पुडा मैदान में आयोजित इस महिला कर्ज मुक्ति रैली में हजारों महिलाओं, किसानों, मजदूरों और युवाओं ने हिस्सा लिया.
ऐक्टू से संबद्ध ‘पश्चिमबंगा संग्रामी रंधन कर्मी यूनियन’ के नेतृत्व में राज्य में 13 अक्टूबर को मिड-डे मील कर्मियों के राज्यव्यापी प्रदर्शन आयोजित हुए जिनमें मजदूरी में बढ़ोतरी और त्योहार भत्ते की मांग उठाई गई. पिछले आंदोलन के दौरान मुख्यमंत्री ममता बनर्जी ने मिड-डे मील सेवा को मनरेगा के साथ जोड़ते हुए मजदूरी में बढ़ोतरी का आश्वासन दिया था, लेकिन यह अभी तक पूरा नहीं हुआ है.
गुनुपूर (उड़ीसा) के निकट 20 अक्टूबर को हुई खदान दुर्घटना में 3 मजदूर मारे गए. ऐक्टू के राज्य उपाध्यक्ष और भाकपा-माले नेता तिरूपति गोमांगो ने इस मामले को तत्काल उठाते हुए जांच की मांग की. सब-कलेक्टर और डीएम घटना स्थल पर पहंचे, और उन्होंने पाया कि ये मजदूर खदान विस्फोट में मारे गए और यहां कार्यरत मजदूरों को कोई सुरक्षा व्यवस्था उपलब्ध नहीं थी. इस अवैध खनन को बंद करने, ठेकेदारों की गिरफ्तारी और मारे गए हर मजदूर के परिवार वालों को 10 लाख और घायल मजदूरों को 50,000 रूपये का मुआवजा देने और जिम्मदार अधिकारियों के निलंबन की मांगे ऐक्टू ने उठाईं.
ऐक्टू व दिल्ली के विभिन्न ट्रेड यूनियन संगठनों ने 26 अक्टूबर को एमसीडी (दिल्ली म्युनिसिपल कॉरपोरेशन) हिन्दू राव अस्पताल के भूख हड़ताल पर बैठे डॉक्टरों व अपनी मांगों को लेकर प्रदर्शन कर रहे कर्मचारियों के साथ प्रदर्शन-स्थल पर जाकर, अपनी एकजुटता जाहिर की. ऐक्टू से जुड़े विभिन्न क्षेत्र के मजदूर साथियों ने भी डॉक्टरों और एमसीडी कर्मचारियों के समर्थन में दिल्ली के अलग-अलग इलाकों में प्रदर्शन किया.
2012-13 में दिल्ली बस गैंगरेप की घटना के बाद सैकड़ों नवयुवा भारतवासी सड़कों पर उतर पड़े थे. उनके गुस्से और झुंझलाहट के बीच सामाजिक जागृति और संस्थागत बदलावों की संभावना भी उम्मीद की एक किरण बनी हुई थी. पहली बार बलात्कार की संस्कृति, पीड़िता को दोषी मानने और सुरक्षा के नाम पर महिलाओं की स्वायत्तता पर हमले को लेकर नारीवादी चिंताओं से समाज भी जुड़ता नजर आ रहा था. ऐसा लग रहा था कि एक लंबे समय बाद शासन यह मानने को बाध्य हो सकता है कि यौन हिंसा रोकने वाले मौजूदा कानूनों ने पीड़ितों के तमाम कटु अनुभवों को दरकिनार कर रखा है.
उत्तरी बंगालः इस बहु-प्रचारित लॉकडाउन के दौर में देश में सबसे पहले, करीबन मई महीने के बीच में खुलने वाले चाय बागान, शायद लॉकडाउन के दौरान उत्पादन शुरु करने वाले पहले उद्यम थे. केन्द्र सरकार द्वारा जारी निर्देशों की कड़ियों में ये कहा गया था कि जुलाई के अंत तक 5 प्रतिशत के सीमित ऑपरेशन से लेकर 50 प्रतिशत मजदूरों को कुछ चरणों में काम पर लिया जाए, लेकिन असल में शुरु से ही शत-प्रतिशत मजदूरों को काम पर लगा दिया गया था.
26 नवम्बर की देशव्यापी आम हड़ताल को सफल बनाने के लिये राज्य स्तरीय सम्मेलन आयोजित किए जा रहे हैं. कुछ राज्यों में ये सम्मेलन, महामारी और लॉकडाउन से पैदा हुए हालातों के चलते, ऑनलाइन आयोजित किए गए. प्रस्तुत है कुछ राज्यों की रिपोर्ट
पंजाबः यहां 26 अक्टूबर को जालंधर के देशभक्त यादगर हॉल में एक सम्मेलन आयोजित किया गया, जिसमें बड़ी संख्या में भागीदारी हुई. सम्मेलन को ऐक्टू प्रदेश अध्यक्ष राजविंदर राणा, एटक से बांत बराड़, सीटू से रघुनाथ सिंह, इंटक से सुभाष कुमार और सीटू पंजाब से नत्था सिंह ने संबोधित किया.
मोदी सरकार द्वारा बिना किसी योजना के, रातों-रात थोपे गये देशव्यापी लॅाकडाउन की मार से मजदूर आज तक उबर नहीं पाये हैं. करोड़ों प्रवासी मजदूरों को अपमान और बदहाली की हालत में सड़ने, रेल की पटरियों और सड़कों पर मरने के लिए छोड़ दिया गया, और सैकड़ों मारे गये. जैसा झूठ आम जनता से मोदी सरकार पिछले 6 सालों से बोल रही है- 2 करोड़ नौकरियां हर साल, अच्छे दिन, आदि- वही झूठ ‘लॉकडाउन वेतन’ देने का वादा भी निकला. कोई कारगर राहत तो दी नहीं, रोजी-रोटी भी छीन ली.
बीते 30 सितंबर 2020 को लगभग सभी अंग्रेजी पत्र-पत्रिकाओं ने एक खबर प्रकाशित की. उक्त खबर के अनुसार भारतीय सेना ने रक्षा मंत्रालय को सौंपी रिपोर्ट में कहा है कि ऑर्डनेंस फैक्ट्री बोर्ड द्वारा भारतीय सेना को घटिया गुणवत्ता के हथियार आपूर्ति किए गए, जिसके चलते अप्रैल 2014 से अप्रैल 2019 के बीच 27 सैनिकों और सिविलियनों की जान गयी और 159 घायल हुए. समाचारों के अनुसार सेना की रिपोर्ट में कहा गया है कि उक्त खराब सामग्री के चलते 960 करोड़ रुपये का नुक्सान हुआ. इतनी धनराशि का उपयोग 100, 155 एमएम की होवित्जर जैसी तोपें खरीदने में किया जा सकता था.
नई दिल्ली: ऐक्टू व दिल्ली की विभिन्न ट्रेड यूनियन संगठनों ने आज हिन्दू राव अस्पताल के भूख हड़ताली डॉक्टरों व अपनी मांग को लेकर प्रदर्शन कर रहे कर्मचारियों के साथ प्रदर्शन-स्थल पर जाकर, अपनी एकजुटता जाहिर की. ऐक्टू से जुड़े विभिन्न क्षेत्र के मजदूर साथियों ने भी आज डॉक्टरों और एमसीडी कर्मचारियों के समर्थन में दिल्ली के अलग-अलग इलाकों में प्रदर्शन किया.
ऐक्टू समेत दिल्ली के विभिन्न ट्रेड यूनियन संगठनों ने आज हिन्दू राव अस्पताल के आन्दोलनरत डॉक्टरों व कर्मचारियों के साथ अपनी एकजुटता जाहिर की. ऐक्टू के राज्य अध्यक्ष कामरेड संतोष राय, सीटू के राज्य अध्यक्ष कामरेड वीरेन्द्र गौड़ व एचएमएस के दिल्ली राज्य अध्यक्ष राजेन्द्र जी ने कर्मचारियों और डॉक्टरों को धरनास्थल पर संबोधित भी किया.
दिल्ली के हिन्दू राव अस्पताल के डॉक्टरों आज उनके भूख हड़ताल के तीसरे दिन भी देश की राजधानी में केंद्र व दिल्ली सरकार के पास डॉक्टरों को देने के लिए पैसे नही है !
चार महीने से डॉक्टरों को सैलरी नही आई जिसके कारण वो भूख-हड़ताल करने के लिए मजबूर हैं !
इस परिस्थिति में केन्द्रीय ट्रेड यूनियनों ने फैसला लिया है कि देश और न्याय के हित में हस्तक्षेप जरूरी है
शनिवार को ऐक्टू के दिल्ली राज्य सचिव कामरेड सूर्य प्रकाश व अन्य साथी, दिल्ली के हिन्दू राव अस्पताल के डॉक्टरों से मिले और ऐक्टू की ओर से एकजुटता जाहिर की. आज उनके भूख हड़ताल का दूसरा दिन था - देश की राजधानी में केंद्र व दिल्ली सरकार के पास डॉक्टरों को देने के लिए पैसे नही है ! चार महीने से डॉक्टरों को सैलरी नही आई जिसके कारण वो भूख-हड़ताल करने के लिए मजबूर हैं !
कन्वेंशन में उपस्थित ट्रेड यूनियन के साथियों ने मज़दूर-गरीब विरोधी सरकारों के खिलाफ, दिल्ली और देशभर में चल रहे तमाम आंदोलनों के साथ एकजुटता जाहिर की और 26 नवंबर की हड़ताल में तमाम आंदोलनरत साथियों को शामिल करने की बात कही। सभी मौजूद साथियों ने हड़ताल की तैयारी में पूरी ताकत से लगने का संकल्प लिया।
सेंटर ऑफ़ स्टील वर्कर्स ने इस एक दिवसीय आयोजित धरने के ज़रिये इस्पात कर्मियों को इस पार फिर बोनस के अदायगी नहीं होने का विरोध करते हुए एतराज़ जताया. यूनियन के महामंत्री देव दीप सिंह दिवाकर ने कहा कि सेंटर ऑफ स्टील वर्कर्स शुरु से ठेका कर्मियों को इस्पात मज़दूर घोषित करने का माँग उठाते रहा है.
वे सामाजिक गुलामी और कट्टरता के विरुद्ध जीवन पर्यंत लड़ने वाले योद्धा थे और सभी प्रकार के जन आंदोलनों के साथी थे. वे बंधुआ मजदूरी के खिलाफ संघर्ष में एक प्रमुख योद्धा थे, और इसके लिये उन्हें हमेशा याद किया जाएगा.
25 अगस्त 2020 को हमारे युवा कामरेड अमरीक सिंह समाओं केवल 28 वर्ष की आयु में अचानक हमें हमेशा के लिए छोड़कर चले गए. वे मानसा, पंजाब से थे. साथी को सीने में दर्द के कारण रात 3 बजे गंभीर हालत में मानसा के एक निजी अस्पताल में भर्ती कराया गया, लेकिन तमाम प्रयासों के बावजूद उन्हें बचाया नहीं जा सका.
बांझेडीह पावर प्लांट कोडरमा (झारखंड) के लिए अधिगृहीत भूमि के बदले रैयतों को मेंटेनेंस में नौकरी देने के मामले में डीवीसी प्रबंधन हमेशा किसी ना किसी बहाने मामले को टालते रही है. रैयातों को कागजी खानापूरी की जाल में और प्लांट में कार्यरत मजदूरों को विभिन्न तरीकों से उलझा रखने की साजिश करती रही है. स्थानीय सांसद और विधायक मजदूरों और रैयतों के बजाय प्रबंधन के पक्ष में हमेशा तरफदारी करते रहे हैं. इस बार यह पहला मौका था जब स्थानीय विधायक-सांसद की चुप्पी और असहयोग के बावजूद मजदूर यूनियन और रैयतों की बेमिसाल एकता के सामने डीवीसी प्रबंधन को झुकना पड़ा.
पुनर्वास के बिना कोई बेदखली नहीं की घोषणा के साथ भाकपा-माले ने 48 हजार झुग्गियों को तोड़े जाने के हालिया निर्णय के खिलाफ 14 सितंबर 2020 से 48 घंटे की भूख हड़ताल शुरु की जिसमें पार्टी राज्य सचिव रवि राय के साथ शकुंतला देवी, सीता देवी, रामेश्वरी देवी, लरजरी देवी और सीता देवी (वजीरपुर झुग्गी निवासी पांच महिलाएं) भी शामिल हुईं.
इंडियन रेलवे इम्प्लाइज फेडरेशन (आईआरईएफ) की तरफ से लगातार यह कोशिश रही है कि रेलवे को सार्वजनिक क्षेत्र में बचाए रखने के लिए जो भी संघर्ष की ताकते हैं या फिर आज के समय में संघर्ष को अपना प्रमुख उद्देश्य मानती हैं, वे एक मंच पर आएं और संयुक्त रूप से, योजनाबद्ध तरीके से संघर्ष की अगुवाई करें.
मोदी-नीत केंद्र सरकार ने 44 महत्वपूर्ण श्रम कानूनों को रद्द करके श्रमिकों के अधिकारों को छीनने के अपने प्रयासों को तेज कर दिया है. संसद का मानसून सत्र, जो एक लंबे अंतराल के बाद हो रहा है, उसे इस तरह सूत्रबद्ध किया गया है कि करोड़ों श्रमिकों और किसानों से जुड़े महत्वपूर्ण मसलों पर चर्चा ही ना हो. जिस तरह से व्यापक विरोध के बावजूद मोदी सरकार तमाम मजदूर व किसान विरोधी कानून बना रही है, वह साफ तौर पर सरकार के घोर मजदूर विरोधी और कॉरपोरेट परस्त रुख को दर्शाता है.
(मजदूरों पर हमलों की कड़ी में, यह कोरोना दौर में मोदी सरकार का एक और बड़ा हमला है यानी औद्योगिक मजदूरों के लिए उपभोक्ता मूल्य सूचकांक की गणना के वास्ते आधार वर्ष को मौजूदा 2001 से बदल कर 2016 करना और इसमें मजदूर विरोधी प्रावधान करना. यह औद्योगिक मजदूरों के महंगाई भत्ता पर केंद्र सरकार का सीधा हमला है. सरकार द्वारा इस संबंध में भेजे गए पत्र एवं दस्तावेजों और उन पर मांगे गए सुझावों का केंद्रीय ट्रेड यूनियनों के संयुक्त मंच द्वारा दिया गया जवाब, नीचे प्रस्तुत है.)
(वेतन कोड मोदी सरकार द्वारा पिछले साल ही संसद में पास करवाकर कानून बना दिया गया है. कोरोना संकट को अवसर में बदलने के अपने परपीड़क सिद्वांत के तहत, अब मोदी सरकार के श्रम मंत्रालय ने कोरोना व लॉकडाउन दौर में ही इस कानून की केंद्रीय नियमावली का मसौदा तैयार कर सार्वजनिक पटल में ला दिया है, जिसका जवाब केंद्रीय ट्रेड यूनियन के संयुक्त मंच और साथ ही ऐक्टू द्वारा सरकार को भेजा गया है. निम्नलिखित जवाब न्यूनतम वेतन निर्धारण के मूल सिद्धांतों पर रोशनी डालते हुए यह दर्शा रहा है कि किस तरह से सरकार न्यूनतम वेतन के अधिकार पर हमला कर रही है).
अध्यक्ष |
का. शंकर. वी | ||||
उपाध्यक्ष |
का. एस. बालासुब्रामनियन का. टी. संकरापांडियन का. सी. इरानीअप्पन का. श्यामलाल प्रसाद का. एस.के. शर्मा का. रामबली प्रसाद का. दिबाकर भट्टाचार्य का. एन.एन. बनर्जी ऐक्टू के 10वें राष्ट्रीय सम्मेलन में चुने गए केंद्रीय पदाधिकारी
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लोकसभा चुनाव 2019 की उलटी गिनती शुरू हो गई है. मोदी सरकार के पांच साल का शासनकाल लूट, झूठ, बांटो और मेहनतकशों के जीवन में तबाही मचाने वाला राज साबित हुआ. अपने अंतिम बजट में भी मोदी सरकार ने मेहनतकशों और आम अवाम के सवालों को ठुकरा दिया, सिवाय कुछ झुनझुने पकड़ाने के.
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