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The Government is proposing to merge BSNL and MTNL. It had already formed a committee for the purpose of examining the issues connected with the merger. Months back, the government has stated that the merger will take place by June 2015, and before that a meeting with the unions will be held. It means that the government on their own will take the decision; after that a meeting will be held with the union to convey their decision. The workers and their unions do not agree to this.
The MTNL was formed in the 1980s bifurcating from the DOT. Nobody wanted the bifurcation. BSNL was formed in 2000 against the strong opposition of the workers. These two companies were formed to reduce the strength of government sector and to gradually privatise both. The method was to reduce the staff strength through VRS and also by disinvestment of shares, thus reducing the govt. share and hand over to private company as it has done in the case of Maruti Udyog Limited which became Suzuki and VSNL which became Tata Communications.
It is because of this, BSNL Employees under the Joint Forum/Joint Action Committee/Forum strongly opposed both VRS and Disinvestment and organised sustained struggles, including strike, which compelled the government not to impose both. Of course, still the recommendations are there to retrench 70,000 workers through VRS.
By merger of BSNL and MTNL, government is trying to kill both with one stroke, as they tried with Air India – Indian Airlines Merger.
In this connection, our demand is that before any discussion on merger of BSNL and MTNL, three conditions should be fulfilled. (1). The 46.5% shares disinvested by MTNL should be bought back (2) There are liabilities to the MTNL to the extent of Rs. 20,000 crore; this should be waived / paid by the government and (3) the HR issues including different pay scales should be settled.
These are only but very reasonable and also unavoidable conditions. Otherwise keep the merger proposal in abeyance. BSNL employees can not agree to any merger without fulfilling these conditions.
VAN Namboodiri's Blog 
Comrade it is very heartning to note that the indefinite strike due was cancelled and in its place a two day strike is scheduled for save BSNL campaign. The 2 days strike will not have any impact on the government. We should have a detailed agreement with the government and the management to save the workers from its anti worker policy. With the entry of Reliance JIO which has bid for 4G spectrum there will be more surrender of Mobile revenue and Data loss to the BSNL. CMDs calculation of getting more revenue in this segment will be utterly defeated. BSNL has to think like private operator of just earning profits otherwise it is going like AirIndia,ITI,HMT, Mills etc wherein some fine day govt will declare it sick and benefits of the worker will be taken away. This is the road to the end for BSNL workers and BSNL workers has to rise to the occassion and save BSNL. Legal opinion and appointing consultants is the need of the hour. Forum leaders should come out and think about it. More than lakh employees are having more than 10 years of service and the chance of survival of the company looks dim. Comrade go for indefinite strike for the same agenda and get the agreement reached with the govt and Management at a later date rather than the 2 days of strike which will not solve any purpose.
Dear Comrade, The decision to go on two days strike was taken after detailed discussion by the General Secretaries of the unions and associations in BSNL. In case issues are not settled, there is still the opportunity to go for an indefinite strike. Now our foremost task is to make the strike a complete success.
iti have not got wage revision from 2007 because it is making loss.bsnl will not be able to implement seventh pay commission since bsnl is in loss.no psu can make profit in a competitive enviromment.the need of the hour is changing the govt rule towards sick psus.psus shoul get wage revision whether it is profit making or not.
spsus are becoming sick because of competition not due to mnagement or employees inefficiency.
all sick psus should join together and appeal to the govt to restore wage revision and other benefits.
we can not revive bsnl ,mtnl or iti,at he same time we can always fight for the benefit of employees
You are mistaken in the matter that PSUs can not be revived. Coal India was in difficulties. It is now profitable. Indian Bank was in loss. Now it is OK. LIC is one of the biggest profit making companies. leave alone ONGC, HPCL, BPCL etc. When the government wants its policies like universal service to be implemented through BSNL, it should support and financially assist the company. Almost about Rs. 10,000 crore is loss for BSNL for providing and maintaining service in the villages, border areas, maoist-naxalite affected areas etc. If the government fully compensate the same, there will be no loss. The government also will not allow BSNL to stop the services in these areas. No private company will provide service.Even the amounts due to the BSNL already allotted like Rs. 1,250 crore in lieu of ADC for the year 2012-13 is not paid as also the refund of the spectrum surrendered. Why the government is not paying; it is only to starve BSNL for funds to purchase equipment. The government should support its own company, more than it supports and subsidize the private companies through tax waival, penalty waival etc.
Coal India is a monopoly.so it is making profit.most of the PSUs have collapsed in competitive environment.liberalisation policies are irreversible.thecountry has benefitted tremendously due to liberalisation.
When air India was a monopoly,people had to shell our r,s,10000 for a air ticket between Bangalore to Delhi in early 1990.
Today people can fly for r,s 5’000 from Bangalore to Delhi
When bsnl was a monopoly people had to deposit 8,000/ to get a out connection and wait for an year or so,
Today people are getting fixed line connection within a week without any deposit.
So there is a strong evidence to prove that the country,economy,people have benefitted out of competition,though PSUs and the people are affected due to liberalisation.
Hence the need of the hour is that all vulnerable PSUs should join together and appeal to the govt to ensure thAt
All sick PSUs get wage revision
All the employees of sick PSUs get salary in time and benefits on par with profitable psus.
Pl focus on PSU employees not on revival of PSUs.
There are lots of PSUs which has survived and improved faced with competition. As already stated that most of the PSUs are in profit. But the anti-PSU policies of the government is making all the difference. It is just like that the right hand of a contestant is tied behind and asking him to fight a man with both hands free. Regarding wage revision, it is already in the agenda of the Unions/associations.