4372691

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How Relevant Are Our Trade Unions? Author(s): Amiya Rao Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 18, No. 47 (Nov. 19, 1983), pp. 1960-1961Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4372691Accessed: 12-03-2015 18:52 UTC

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November 19, 1983 ECONOMIC -AND POLITICAL WhEEKLY

keeper who does not take some remu- neration from the tribals is an excep- tion rather than the rule. In Raipipla town itself one may find the residences of at least 10 village land record-keepers. A document which the citizens are entitled to get free of charge is not available to the tribals in their own villages according to the rules. They are made to spend approximately Rs 25 on travelling to town and back for the purpose of getting the document.

Goitre is a disease common among tribals and it is caused by lack of iodine in their -diet. The incidence of goitre may be prevented by using iodised salt in one's food. The high rate of incidence of goitre in Gadher, a tribal village 50 kms away from Raipipla was brought to the notice of the health authorities in the district, more than three years ago. To this date iodised salt is not available in the village. In Mandod ta'uka alone, there may be about a thousand patients with very enlarged goitre. The health authorities are not very much bothered as the affected persons are mostly illiterate and poor tribals.

Nana Haidwa and Ringani are two tribal villages at a distance of about 10 kms from Raipipla. The two villages ate connected by a 'katcho rasto' to a

state highway which can be used to go to town. Till the last rainy season, the road was motorable all through the year even though it was not paved. In the rainy season water drained off the road easily and the\ surface of the road remained hard because of the sandy nature of the soil. The natural drainage of rain water from the road was blocked in April-May 1983 by the careless dumping of mud dug out from a canal passing under the road. As a result, the road became a veritable pond with the onset of the rainy season. Farmers could not even take their bullocks, ploughs, tractors and trailors over the road. Patients in the two villages could not be taken to the hospi- tals in ambulances because of the public nuisance. The Mamlatdar's Act pro- vides for speedy relief on such occasions. A plaint was filed in the Mamlat- dar's Court by a tribal praying for the reopening of the road to traffic. Two other tribals filed a plaint in the Court of the Sub-divisional Magistrate for the removal of public nuisance across the road. Even after a month of filing the suits, there is no ray of hoPe of getting any relief in the near future. Both the officers have not found it necessary to inspect the site even though hundreds of tribal users of the road are inconveni- enced on the road.

LABOUR

How Relevant Are Our Trade Unions? Amiya Rao

THE recently held Delhi Convention of the National Campaign Committee (NCC) of Trade Unions staunchly reiterated the "correctness and importance of the basic outlook" that "the struggle of the working class closely linked with the struggle of the working people is an integral part of the general democratic movement". Such statements normally should have raised the, spirits of the working class but doubts regarding the seriousness. of the resolution assailed their minds when poor illiterate tea-garden workers in the North Bengal were made to accept without a murmur, not to mention struggle, the impressive pay-rise of 75 p per year (EPW, August 6, 1983); and even. this may. not be available if the gardens are 'financially weak' which of course they will be. Would it -be wrong to surmise that the steaming cups h-ave not only cheered but have also inebriat--

ed in this case our well-intentioned trade union leaders and the interests of the affluent planters have taken precedence over the interests of the working class?

This lack of zeal to fight for the democratic rights of their own union members, less glamorous and more indigent than the public sector employees, has been in evidence on vttrious occasions over the years. The notori- ous Magarwara killing (EPW, April 3, 1982) of the workers of Rallis India by the UP government still rankles because of the cold unconcern of the senior AITUC :eaders towards this tra- gedy. If this was in UP, Bihar did not fare much better. Three thousand starving workers of the Kumardhubi Engineering Works (EPW, September 25, 1982) are still waiting for the Presi- dent's assent to the Bill which, after three long years of agonising waiting,

the Bihar government had passed for its takeover. Several of these workers have died of starvation since the closure in 1979; their women are now selling themselves and their children to escape death. Abdul Bari, a worker and a member of the INTUC, committed suicide in September 1982 standing before a running train - so unbear- able must have been the pangs of hunger and the sight of friends reduced to tottering skeletons begging for food. Where. are our trade union leaders? Have they given any call for strike. in the public sector ,industrial units to highlight the issue and then pressurise the Centre for the takeover so that these men could resume work and live again? In their convention one had beard the spirited words that "t.he movement would be invested with a high phase of consciousness and militan.- cy and striking power". Let alone 'inili- tancy' not even a non-violent strike- calll In another part of Bihar, in Darbhanga, the Ashok Paner Mills, a joint venture of the Bihar and the Assam governments closed down all of. a sudden in March 1982 without a formal closure order. Today its one thousand workers are in the streets facing the spectre of unemployment and starvation. Bihar has produced leading lights in the trade union movement, but these seasoned men have chosen to remain unmoved. Yet the AITUC has described the Delhi con- mention's 8-point prlogram.me as "the democratic alternative programme to counter the btmkrupt capitalist path". Revolutionary rhetoric might for a. time impress the gullible . illiterate union members but can they hide the bank- ruptcy of the movement?

It did look a little odd that in Janu- ary this year the INTUC leaders should have moved about in police vehicles along with the BCCL men. to break the three-day strike called by the Coliery Shramik Sangh demanding better wages and improved living conditions. Police terror was let loose in Jagata Colliery and several trade unions actively assist- ed the management to drag the striking men out of their homes and take them forcibly to the collierv to work. The INTUC leaders of course have covered themselves with glory in Dhan- bad; the fraud perpetrated by them on the 28 stone cutters of their own members is on y one snall pearl in their lustrous crown.

Dhanbad is like a 'Room on the Top'; it gives a complete view of the achieve- ments of most of our trade union

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ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEKLY NNmvember 19, 19

leaders., The Dhanbtd MP, A K Roy, mentioned in the Lok Sabha that "no less than 5,000 tribal workers were removed from the rolls, showing them as resigned or showing that they have voluntarily abandoned their jobs". A statement of category-wise selections/ recruitment of workers between 1-1-82 and 1-7-82 shows that out of 33 jobs vacant, SC/ST candidates could be found fit for three jobs only and then too out of 91, 98. 180 candidates selected, their number was 1, 3 and 6. No SC/ST was found fit to work even as a mttzdoor. Womnen workers are being open y discriminated against because of their sex. Area-wise de- tailed break-up rate since 1980 is not possible in an article, but the following figures will show how systematically women are being elimi- nated:

Year Women

1973 30,000 1977 19,754 1978 18,084 1979 16,764 1981 12,000

The BCCL's explanation for this is mechanisation of loading and unload- ing coal which former y used to be done by women; but even so has BCCL any schem.e for training. women to handle these simple machines? If modernisa- tion and mechanisation of our coal industry in the name of development lead to further unemployment and greater misery for the poor and yet the country's trade unions choose to watch this happen complacently one has per- haps to conclude that the trade union movement is itself switching on to the capitalist path.

It is not unlikely that in the eyes of the trade union leaders, em.ployment of women, who belong to the same working class as men and work as hard if not more for survival of the family is not of much importance. That must be the reason why there has not been even a whisper of protest against the new voluntary Retirement Scheme which the BCCL is using to get rid of all women mine workers. The word 'voluntary' is really an euphemism for 'compulsory'; for those who are resist- ing the scheme are being transferred to dangerous fire-project areas of the colliery - 20 km. awav from their homes to work alone at night in virtual darkness separating boulders from coal. The managertient openly admits that 'the work is back-breaking and against 41t rulIes, bult "thxat is the only way to

force them to leave". Under this scheme the lien passes only to a man invariably an outsider, but never to a woman even if she is a daughter of the retiring woman. The total silence of the trade union leaders towards this anti-women policy of BCCL, which is already affecting the lives of thousands of women miners, leading then to mi- grate to prostitution to escape penury, together with the INTUC's enthusia- stic incorporation of the 'employee's son' clause into the wage agreement forthe steel industry, have removed all possible doubts which way their minds are working as far as the women working class is concerned. But apart from being another anti-women clause the 'employee's son' is a Ifeudal concept and will create a highly dangerous sectional interest, 'a new caste system' as A K Roy puts it. This old favourite of the capitalists used to kill all strikes agitations and demonstrations, has been now sponsored by our leaders of the trade unions - even CITU has meekly agreed. If this is not political ex. pediency of the highest order, the quiet style of "strengthening the grip of the vocals in politics", what is?

After 50 years of active trade union- ism the leaders seem to have lost their direction and it would be naive to expect that they would unrivet their gaze from the public sector and Central government employees and turn it towards the vast sea of human beings seething with discontent yet slaving away in the unorganised sector. The women bidi workers of Vellore having mortgaged all their earthly belongings to their employer for a small loan have been mortgaging their children "because that is all we have now" and even then the loan has not been paid off and cruel exploitation is going on. Belchis have multiplied ten times over, land- lords have 'icence to kill the harijan agriculture labour asking for their minimum wage; this June 5 jobless adivasi youths were dragged 100 metres tied to a police jeep, - then hung up heads down from a crossbeam tind flog- ed in the market place in Gua; all died. Their crime was grave, they wanted employment to escape starvation death. Those who constantly talk of social integration, social revolution, tribal development, and so on have remained mute to this dav. How can adivasis be the responsibility of non-Jharkhand groups? Whatever else this attitude might indicate, it does not speak of social commitment. Today's priority is not to lead the woebegone landless in a march away from the. limelight, de-

manding better distribution of surplus land or for lowering of the ceiling; today one must address the urban audi- ence in Delhi's Bout Club with came- ras clicking, demanding increase of wages and benefits and dearness allow- ance for Central government employees and public sector employees.

If the gulf between the trade union- ists and society had not been so wide they would have realised why the general public having lost faith in the political parties are getting apathetic to the big names in the recognised trade iunions; many are turning instead tothe faceless unions which have been com- ing up in increasing multiplicity pro- mising them every possible relief under the sun, leading inevitably to violent demonstrations. There is no denying that trade unions in India are in a mess and so are industrial relations. The gruesome Modinagar killings indicate where the trade union movement is going.

Reports say, however, the NCC is happy and satisfied with its achieve- ment on the question of wages and dearness a'lowance of the employees of the Central government and the public sector; what is more, because of their united opposition to the Bureau of Public Enterprises guidelines seeking a ceiling-on wage revisions, the guidelines are in shambles; and the wage settlement is 10 oer cent higher than the BPE ceiling. If private sector employers, as a commentator has remarked, are watching the fun and are holding their own workers to ransom as the growing phenomenon of closures shows - that after all cannot be the concern of the NCC. The NCC has also claimed that because of their agi- tation, the government has been com- pelled not to use ESMA and NSA to curb the trade union rights.

If the Police Act of 1861, the Special Arms Act, the Disturbed Areas Act, etc, are creating a reign of terror in regions away from the capital, women are being molested by the army, men are sleeping in sodden fields to avoid being shot down, unarmed women and children are being fired upon, after being illegally thrown out of their land -these happen to be non-issues not deemed to be impoortant enough for the organisers of India's 'working- peo- ple'.

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Article Contentsp. 1960p. 1961

Issue Table of ContentsEconomic and Political Weekly, Vol. 18, No. 47 (Nov. 19, 1983), pp. 1949-1992Front Matter [pp. 1949-1974]Industrial Growth [pp. 1949-1950]Purchasing MLAs [p. 1950]Exposed by Nobel Prize [pp. 1950-1951]The Yagna and Its Critic [p. 1951]Shadow of Army Power [pp. 1951-1952]BusinessNew Edible Oil Import Strategy [pp. 1952-1953]Pull of Domestic Market [pp. 1953-1954]

Capital ViewLeaders et al... [p. 1955]

Statistics [p. 1956]Companies: Discriminatory Taxation [pp. 1957-1958]From Our CorrespondentsEveryday Discriminations against Tribals [pp. 1959-1960]How Relevant Are Our Trade Unions? [pp. 1960-1961]Cyclone and Politics [p. 1962]Citizen and Public Money [p. 1963]Imports Undermine Rayon Industry [pp. 1964-1965]Making the Economy Scream [p. 1965]

PerspectivesConstitutionalism as Political Escapism: Restructuring Centre-State Relations [pp. 1966-1967]

ReviewReview: Sharecropping: History, Theory and Practice [pp. 1968-1969]

Special ArticlesGrowth, Investment and Poverty in Mid-Term Appraisal of Sixth Plan [pp. 1972-1973+1975-1977]Intervention in Nicaragua: Carter and Now Reagan Find the Options Limited [pp. 1977-1982]Copyright in India: National and International: The 1983 Amendment of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 [pp. 1983-1988]

Tungabhadra Fibres [p. 1988]DiscussionMeasurement of Protection to Indian Industries and Its Implications [pp. 1989-1992]Economics of Brideprice and Dowry [p. 1992]

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