A Report of the 4th All India Conference of All India Construction Workers Federation (AICWF)
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 venue of conference, Kanyakumari was renamed as comrade NK Natrajan nagar, and the hall and stage were named respectively as comrade Hari Singh -Jaffar Hall and comrade Ponraj - Omprakash Sharma stage.
The two days conference was attended by around two hundred and fifty delegates from states such as Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Assam, Karbi Anglong and Uttarakhand.
On 8th July i.e. the opening day of the conference, the federation flag was hoisted by S. Balasubramanian, national President of AICWF. Then the delegates, the leaders of AICCTU, AICWF and guests paid homage to the departed leaders and workers who sacrificed their lives in the class struggle, and to Com. Sugundhan, the former Tamil Nadu state secretary of CPIML and the state Vice President of AICCTU. The conference paid homage to the workers and common people who died in Balasore train accident and other industrial accidents and natural calamities.
Thereafter, the open session was held, which was presided by S. Balasubramanian. Suseela, construction worker leader from Kanyakumari gave the welcome address.
Shankar V, national President of AICCTU inaugurated the conference.
The open session was addressed by construction workers union leaders of various streams. Comrade K.P. Perumal, Tamil Nadu state president of CWFI (CITU); N. Selvaraj, All India treasurer of All India Confederation of Building and Construction workers (AITUC ); and K. Perarivalaan, Organizer general council, Labour Liberation Front and member, construction workers welfare board, Tamil Nadu.
Pazha Aasaithambi, state secretary of CPI-ML Tamil Nadu and Birendra Gupta, CPI-ML MLA of Bihar were special guest speakers. T. Sankara Pandian, state president AICCTU, Tamil Nadu and K Gnanadesikan, state general secretary also addressed the session.
The solidarity message from UITBB (an international confederation of construction workers, affiliated to WFTU) was read out in the session.
The Booklet "Build a radical movement of construction labour" in English and Hindi were jointly released by SK Sharma and S. Balasubramanian in the open session and the first copies were presented to Rajiv Dimiri and Shankar V. Mementos were presented to all guests and leaders. SK Sharma moderated the entire session.
The delegate session was presided by a 9-member presidium comprising S. Balasubramanian, Mahendra Parida, RN Thakur, Prabir Das, C. Iraniappan, Shantilal Trivedi, Susheela, Sangita Devi and Sandhya Panna.
S. K. Sharma placed the general secretary's draft work report. It was taken up for discussion and 26 delegates participated in the deliberations. Finally, after the summing up speech by the General Secretary that took care of all views of delegates, the report was unanimously passed in the conference with some amendments and additions. Rajiv Dimri, national general secretary addressed this session.
The delegates unanimously elected a 51-member executive committee with 15 office bearers. The conference re-elected S. Balasubramanian as the President and SK Sharma as the General Secretary of the AICWF.
Resolutions
1. The conference supports and gives a call to participate in maha padav (massive sit-ins) called by joint platform of central Trade Unions and independent federations to be held on August 9 in all state capitals and important district headquarters on the burning issues of working class including withdrawal of four labour codes, which are pushing the entire working class of India into slavery. AICWF resolves to hold a two week long campaign from July 25th to August 8 all over India in support of maha padav.
2. The conference calls to hold an intense campaign to be held in all districts for continued enrolment of new members from the month of September to December. All forms of struggle and agitation to be held during the campaign at state and district headquarters highlighting issues and demands of construction workers.
3. State and district level Educational workshops will be conducted during the campaign period.
Below is the message of the AICWF conference:
• Fight for Decent Wages, Regular Work, Social Security and Dignified Life!
• Fight to Reclaim our Rights!
• Let us turn 2023 into a year of waves of militant struggles!
• Let us Resolve to Defeat the Modi Regime in the 2024 elections!
• Welfare Board is Ours, Not a Tool for Government Loot!
• Welfare Board is Our hard-won Right, We will not let it be Dismantled!
• Fight for a Welfare Board with comprehensive benefits including ESI, PF, Pension and Free housing!
• Fight for scrapping of Social Security Code and other Labour Codes of Slavery!
• United Struggle against attacks on Livelihood and Rights!
• Red Waves of Struggles Against Communal hatred and Corporate Domination!
• Let us strengthen Solidarity and Unity!
Dear friends,
Despite being the country’s second largest workforce and contributing 10% of the GDP, the construction workers today are confronting worst attack on their livelihood and social security among other rights. The promise of ‘Achche Din’ (Good Times) by Modi turned out to be a cruel joke.
The construction workers achieved a central Act, 1996 and the state level Boards under it through relentless, prolonged struggles, but the Modi government is doing away with it in the name of replacing it by the ‘Social Security Code’. The construction workers were able to get, at least, some meagre social security benefits under these welfare Boards, which is in the process of being eliminated by the Code.
The Social Security Code Act – A Design to Snatch the Rights of Workers
Social Security Code Act is meant for snatching the rights of construction workers. At the same time, it dilutes the duties of employers and gives them free hand to act against workers.
For example, the term “building and other construction work” is defined as the ones of a worth of 50 lakhs and above, under the Code, which effectively excludes a vast majority of construction workers who are engaged in working for smaller building worth less than Rs 50 lakhs. Hence, the social security code is nothing but a design to throw away a vast majority of building and construction workers from the purview of any social security coverage and mechanism.
The Code also prohibits the board from formulating any scheme or measures independently without permission from the central government which is mandatory. Hence the powers of the board is made skewed and toothless.
The Code provides blanket powers to the board to invest the money in speculative market by making benefits to workers vulnerable.
The provisions relating to Cess are heavily diluted with a provision for self-assessment of capacity by the employer himself to pay a cess with much less percentage and with much lesser interest.
The duties of employers to comply with the safety, health requirements and to provide basic amenities like drinking water, toilets, etc., to workers at worksite have been heavily diluted.
The Employees Compensation Act has been reworked in a manner that a large number of construction workers would not be entitled to compensation in case of any workplace injury or death.
The right to double wages for overtime work has been effectively removed.
The government has also plotted with replacing construction labour welfare boards with some portals like e-shram, which offers nothing more than a death benefit of two lakhs and a permanent disability benefit of one lakh. The workers are being forced to depend on insurance companies and schemes for other benefits which is proportionate to the money they part with, out of their pocket. While the Modi government scorns the social security to the toiling masses and the poor as ‘freebies’, it has given away billions of rupees as concessions to the corporates.
On the other hand, these welfare boards are being used as instruments of government-driven loot. Only a small part of a huge corpus lying with these boards is being used for the benefits of construction workers while a large part is being diverted to benefit corporate houses in various ways. Till 2019, welfare boards across the country collected a cess of around Rs. 49,688.07 crores and spent only Rs. 19,379.922 crores. This apart, innumerable hurdles are being created in the process of registration of construction workers in the welfare boards. There is more than a crore of construction workers without registration and hence the benefits under the Act.
While the prices of essential items are skyrocketing, there is practically no increase in wages. Rather, wages are drastically declining leading to poverty, disparity and destitution.
A big section of construction workers is migrants, who are most exploited and oppressed besides facing all kinds of discrimination. The reality of their pathetic life came to limelight during the unplanned and cruel lockdown imposed by the Modi regime in March 2020, when they were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres, many dying on the way, without food, water and transport. In the period of lockdown, only 1.23 crore workers, that is less than a quarter, received any welfare benefits.
Women constitute a big part of construction workforce, but they are facing discrimination of wages based on gender, apart from facing sexual harassment.
In mega government projects, the construction workers are forced to live like prisoners, cut off from outside world. The most glaring example is the construction of Central Vista, including the new parliament building.
The Way Ahead – Intensify Struggle to Reclaim Our Rights
The construction workers had won a long battle and achieved legislation of a central act and welfare boards. Under Modi’s BJP regime, they are again being compelled to continue their struggle for better wages and living conditions, including clean water, health, education and housing. They are now forced into a situation where they have to intensify the struggle to reclaim their social security and other rights and benefits which are being systematically snatched away by the Modi government.
Today, the entire working class is under attack. Workers are being pushed into the conditions of slavery through 4 Labour Codes. Every basic right of workers is being snatched away, including the right to form union and the right to protest, upto strike. The stranglehold of the corporate and ruling classes is tightening around the noose of workers.
While workers’ sufferings are escalated by increasing poverty, unemployment, destitution, loss of rights and inequality, the Modi regime is intensifying communal polarisation to divide workers and to divert them from their basic issues by denting their struggling unity. But, the people of Karnataka have the shown the way by rejecting communal designs of the BJP in the recently concluded assembly elections.
United struggle is the need of the hour in the backdrop of all round attack on all sections of people. The construction workers are an integral part of working class movement and it has a historic role to play in strengthening the movement.
The united struggles of working class and broadest peoples’ unity only has the potential to retaliate these attacks. The historical movement of farmers is a case in point.
We must defeat the Modi government’s attacks and evil designs to divide and deceive the working people. We must give a befitting reply and oust this anti-worker, anti-people, pro-corporate Modi government from power in 2024 general elections.
The 4th All India Conference of “ALL INDIA CONSTRUCTION WORKERS FEDERATION (AICWF), affiliated to AICCTU, resolves to carry forward the movement to reclaim the rights of construction workers. Let us make our best efforts and contributions to make the conference a grand success!
Demands
• Double the Minimum wages. Minimum pension of Rs. 10,000 with DA.
• Comprehensive social security including ESI, PF, Pension, Free housing, Education and Health.
• Ensure benefits of welfare boards to workers. Stop weakening and dismantling of welfare boards.
• Make principal employer responsible for workers welfare, deaths and accidents.
• Strengthen the welfare boards by increasing the cess to 3% and allocating 1% of GDP.
• Ensure enrolment of workers in boards offline and additionally online. No infringement of the rights of unions in enrolment.
• Withdraw Social Security Code and other anti-worker Labour Codes.
• 8-hour workday, double OT for extra work, Bonus, Leave, Gratuity, and other facilities on par with regular employees of the Central Govt.
• Ensure strict implementation of legal provisions to stop sexual harassment of women construction workers. Ensure legal benefits to women construction workers, including maternity leave and benefits.
• Ensure safety and legal rights of migrant workers.
• Ensure representation of all central trade unions in welfare boards. Stop NGOisation of welfare boards. No to private agencies to handle the funds of welfare boards.
The Office-bearers elected by 4th All India Conference of All India Construction Workers Federation (AICWF) held at Kanyakumari on 8 - 9 July 2023
PRESIDENT
Bala Subramanian
Vice Presidents
1. Anthony Muthu (Tamil Nadu)
2. Prabir Das (West Bengal)
3. Surendra Prasad Singh (Bihar)
4. Vasudeva Rao (Andhra Pradesh)
5. Rana Pratap Singh (Uttar Pradesh)
General Secretary
S. K. Sharma
Organising Secretary cum Treasurer
RN Thakur (Bihar)
SECRETARIES
1. Mahendra Parida (Odisha)
2. Kishore Sarkar (West Bengal)
3. C Eraniappan (Tamil Nadu)
4. VKS Gautam (Delhi)
5. B Kevat (Jharkhand)
6. PP Appanna (Karnataka)
7. Dasharath Sinhali (Gujarat)