How Relevant Are Our Trade Unions?

Author(s): Amiya Rao

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 18, No. 47 (Nov. 19, 1983), pp. 1960-1961
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4372691
Accessed: 12-03-2015 18:52 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political
Weekly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 115.113.198.226 on Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:52:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ECONOMIC -AND POLITICAL WhEEKLY

November 19, 1983

keeper who does not take some remuneration from the tribals is an exception 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 hospitals in ambulances because of the public
nuisance. The Mamlatdar's Act provides for speedy relief on such occasions. A plaint was filed in the Mamlatdar'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 inconvenienced on the road.

LABOUR

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 unbearable 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 'inilitancy' not even a non-violent strikecalll 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
unemployment
facing the spectre of
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 conmention's 8-point prlogram.meas "the
democratic alternative programme to
counter the btmkrupt capitalist path".
Revolutionary rhetoric might for a. time
impress the gullible . illiterate union
Rao
members but can they hide the banked in this case our well-intentioned ruptcy of the movement?
trade union leaders and the interests
It did look a little odd that in Januof the affluent planters have taken ary this year the INTUC leaders should
precedence over the interests of the have moved about in police vehicles
working class?
along with the BCCL men. to break the
This lack of zeal to fight for the three-day strike called by the Coliery
democratic rights of their own union Shramik Sangh demanding better wages
members, less glamorous and more and improved living conditions. Police
indigent than the public sector em- terror was let loose in Jagata Colliery
ployees, has been in evidence on vttrious and several trade unions actively assistoccasions over the years. The notori- ed the management to drag the strikous Magarwara killing (EPW, April 3,
ing men out of their homes and take
1982) of the workers of Rallis India them forcibly to the collierv to work.
by the UP government still rankles The INTUC leaders of course have
because of the cold unconcern of the covered themselves with glory in Dhansenior AITUC :eaders towards this tra- bad; the fraud perpetrated by them on
gedy. If this was in UP, Bihar did not the 28 stone cutters of their own memfare much
better. Three thousand bers is on y one snall pearl in their
starving workers of the Kumardhubi lustrous crown.
Engineering Works (EPW, September
25, 1982) are still waiting for the PresiDhanbad is like a 'Room on the Top';
dent's assent to the Bill which, after it gives a complete view of the achievethree long years of agonising waiting, ments of most of our trade union

How Relevant Are Our Trade Unions?

Amiya
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-1960

This content downloaded from 115.113.198.226 on Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:52:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

NNmvember
19,

ECONOMICAND POLITICALWEKLY
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
candidates could be
vacant, SC/ST
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. Womnenworkers
are being open y discriminated against
because of their sex. Area-wise detailed break-up rate since 1980 is
not possible in an article, but the
following figures will show how
systematically women are being eliminated:
Year

Women

1973
1977
1978
1979
1981

30,000
19,754
18,084
16,764
12,000

The BCCL's explanation for this

is mechanisation of loading and unloading 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 modernisation 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 perhaps to conclude that the trade union
movement is itself switching on to the
capitalist path.

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 migrate to prostitution to escape penury,
together with the INTUC's enthusiastic 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 unionism 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
discontent yet slaving
seething with
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, landlords 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 floged 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

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 resisting 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 "thxatis the only way to a march away from the. limelight, de-

19

manding better distribution of surplus

land or for lowering of the ceiling;
today one must address the urban audience in Delhi's Bout Club with cameras clicking, demanding increase of
wages and benefits and dearness allowance for Central government employees
and public sector employees.
If the gulf between the trade unionists 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 coming up in increasing multiplicity promising 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 achievement 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 agitation, the government has been compelled 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 impoortantenough for
the organisers of India's 'working- people'.
iiB1

This content downloaded from 115.113.198.226 on Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:52:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions