Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications & IT stated that call centres will be started by BSNL all over the country to address the grievances of the consumers expeditiously. At present there is only one call centre for the whole north India at Gurgaon. Sachin Pilot was inaugurating a new call centre in Ajmer for the Rajasthan Circle. He also stated that ” Communications Ministry wants to solve the problems of consumers immediately and for this call centres are being set up in this field. In future call centres will be opened in small cities.”

The details of the plan to open the call centres are not known and it is also not known whether it will be limited to Rajasthan only.

All the Central Trade Unions have strongly opposed the refusal of the Central government to approve the increase of PF interest rate from 8.5% to 9.5% for 2010-11 as decided by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation(EPFO). There are 4.71 crore subscribers to the EPF. The government refusal has been described by the Unions as anti-labour. It was after much pressure by the unions that the decision was taken by the EPFO to increase the rate. Private companies have been opposing the hike and the government has succumbed to their pressure. No doubt business people are more important than workers to the UPA government!

An inter-ministerial committee formed for that purpose has recommended that mobile towers should not be erected in high density residential areas, as it is feared that radiation may take place. Whether the Government will decide accordingly is not known. But if it is agreed there will be problems for the expansion of mobile connections.

It seems that panic has gripped both NFTE and its new alliance  SNATTA. Both of them have started rumours  to such an extent that nobody will believe them. They put in their website about desertions from BSNLEU on a large-scale. These rumours are completely without any basis and are nothing but trash.
What is the reason for such false statements? One reason is that during election time everybody has to say something. If there is no truth to be said, then resort to falsehood.

Second reason seems to be that they have become desperate. NFTE’s effort to stop verification through court have failed. They have failed to keep FNTO with them. Coms. N.T. Sajwani, former Secretary General, NFTE and senior leader Com.R.K.Kohli along with their large followers have formed another union, NFTBE and joined the United Forum in support of BSNLEU. Through all this, any chance of getting even a respectable number of votes is gone, leave alone winning, which they never even dreamt of. So NFTE has become desperate.

As far as SNATTA is concerned, when in alliance with BSNLEU/United Forum, it had two members in National Council, members in Wage Negotiation Committee, Change of Designation Committee etc. and were party to all discussions and decisions taken by the United Forum. Many issues of the Directed Recruited TTAs as like other newly recruited officals have  been settled and other issues are continuously being discussed. In fact, during the discussions between BSNLEU and SNATTA on 16th December 2010, all these issues were discussed and there seemed to be an understanding. It was only on the demand of 4 seats in National council and all places for SNATTA that BSNLEU was not able to agree since BSNLEU with 1,25,000 members were having only 4 seats and there were no seats to spare. This was well understood by SNATTA. Still, SNATTA leaders decided to go away from United Forum. Nobody questions the right of SNATTA to take their own decision.

But once the decision to leave UF and join NFTE has been taken SNATTA leaders have to justify the same before their members. They are unable to do so and hence the panic. They know very well that NFTE alliance can not win by any means. Workers will question them why you have left UF where you were respected and got seats and opportunity to discuss each and every issue with the management and joined another alliance where there are no such opportunities. They are unable to answer. Further a good number of DRTTAs still continue with BSNLEU despite SNATTA leaders direction to leave BSNLEU. And in fact in many places, they have revolted also. Hence the panic of SNATTA leaders.

We are not in the habit of spreading rumours for cheap popularity. We know that once the verification is over, the air will become clear. BSNLEU as the recognised union always stood for protecting and advancing the rights and demands of the workers. And the workers, even in the other unions, know and acknowledge that.

 The V Membership Verification is fast nearing. There are only 15 days left for the crucial date – 1st February 2011. All the Unions are in the field attending and addressing meetings. At this time, all workers are active. They want to hear the leaders explaining the demands, criticising the other unions and seeking vote on their own charter of demands.

BSNLEU has always kept decorum and stressed more on its achievements. But some of the unions are desperate and is criticising each and everything and putting all the blame on the recognised union. But the workers understand these cheap tactics well,  They have got full faith in the BSNLEU and the vast majority will vote for it.

But let us not be over-confident. Meet each and every worker and seek their votes, Remember that we should get more than 60% votes at least. Continue the campaign! Victory is ours!

Once again, within few weeks, the petrol prices have been increased! The petrol price is being increased by Rs. 2.52 per litre which will make the price for 1 litre at Rs. 58.37 in Delhi. Last month petrol price was increased by Rs.3.00 per litre. In other cities the petrol prices are still higher – Kolkata – Rs. 62.43, Mumbai – Rs.62.96 and Chennai – Rs.63.15 per litre. This unjustified increase will put more hardship on the common people and low paid workers. The petrol price increase will have cascading effect on the prices of all commodities. The opposition parties have lambasted this price increase and demanded the Government to withdraw the increase.

The working class can not be a silent spectator. Whatever benefit the workers have gained through wage revision are all being washed away by this intolerable hike. The Trade unions in the country should continue sustained struggles to get the hike cancelled.

In this connection, the Parliament March on 23rd February against price rise and other demands should be made more massive and effective to give a strong warning to the government.

There should

In the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee held on 14th January at New Delhi, Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, President BSNLEU &  BSNLC&CWF presented all the issues connected with the non-regularisation of Casual Labour, non-grant of TSM to Casual labour, non payment of minimum wages to casual and contract labour as also non-extension of social security benefit to the workers etc. He also furnished several documents in this connection. When the BSNL Management was asked about these by the committee, they could not reply. The written report given by them was dismissed by the committee as very casual and devoid of facts. Next meeting is now fixed on 24th January in which the management is again called. Union may not be called as we have given our points. However, union is preparing a detailed note to be given to the committee enclosing additional relevant documents. In this connection, We require all relevant information from the Circles immediately. We request that all such information be immediately sent to me by fax  at No.011-25894862.

As the verification date is nearing, both NFTE and FNTO has split. It can be seen that the negative role being okayed by both these organisations have resulted in some sections coming out and forming separate union.

In NFTE, two senior most leaders, Com.R.K.Kohli and Com.N.T.Sajwani, former General Secretary, NFTE has quit NFTE and formed a new organisation called NFTBE (National Federation of BSNL Employees). They have joined United Forum, the alliance led by the present recognised union BSNLEU. It is the same with the newly formed Federation of National Telecom BSNL Employees Union (FNTBEU) led by senior leaders Coms.Jayamary and Andiappan.  They have  declared that they will support BSNLEU in the verification. More members from NFTE andFNTO are going to desert the parent organisation due to the wrong line being adopted by the top leadership of both unions.

Much pressure is being put by India Inc on the government of India to put the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) deposits in the private equities. Big business wants this huge funds to be made available for them to use in the stock market. The Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA) bill presented in the Parliament is proposing the same. The government is toying the line of the India Inc.

The workers are completely against this and have expressed their strong protest. But that will not be sufficient. A big movement involving the entire working class is required to defend and protect their hard earned savings. The promise of better benefit by putting the pension corpus in the private hands is nothing but sugar coated bitter poison.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has been introduced in Haryana Circle since 24th November 2010. It is going to be implemented all over India by 20th January 2011.

What is MNP? MNP allows a subscriber to change the service provider while retaining the original number. Naturally, the service providers which have maximum number of telephones are sure to be hit, and new comers benefitted. There is the chance that BSNL will suffer  greatly. Airtel, Vodafone etc. also may be hit, but  BSNL  probably may be the biggest loser. In fact, it seems that MNP is being introduced so that the private companies will benefit at the cost of telecom PSUs, BSNL and MTNL.

One more reason why the management and workers together should ensure a better service to the people so that they will continue with BSNL/ MTNL.