06 Friday Mar 2015
Posted in Obituary, Tributes
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The people of Venezuela remembered their revolutionary leader and former President Hugo Chavez on his second death anniversary on 5th March 2015 at Carcas.
06 Friday Mar 2015
Posted in General, Neo-liberal policy, TU News - India, Uncategorized
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As per the Budget Speech of the Finance Minister, it is proposed to make EPF optional for those getting wages up to Rs. 15,000. This is neither good for the worker nor to the any government which is welfare oriented.
This anti-worker move has to be opposed and defeated.
06 Friday Mar 2015
Posted in General, Neo-liberal policy, TU News - India
The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Gurgaon has ordered Maruti Suzuki India limited to pay Rs. one lakh compensation each to the 425 workers who were arbitrarily dismissed after labour unrest in the company in July 2012. Maruti has also been asked to deposit Rs. 4.25 crore with the court for making payment to the workers. The Judge also criticised the harassment of the workers by the company.
According to the order, each worker will get Rs. 85,000 and Rs. 15,000 will go towards court expenses. It is to be noted in this connection that 147 workers are still in jail since July 2012 on the complaint of the company.
The Maruti Suzuki and the then Haryana Government has conspired to ensure that the union formed in the Maruti is not recognised and is broken through arrest, jail and harassment. The entire workers in the Gurgaon area have conducted many protest actions against the victimisation of workers.
We demand the Haryana Government to release the jailed workers and reinstatement of the dismissed workers.
05 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in General, TU News - International, WFTU, WORLD NEWS
04 Mar 2015
WOMEN’S DAY, WOMEN’S RIGHTS – WFTU MESSAGE
The World Federation of Trade Unions salutes the working women worldwide and reaffirms its commitment in the struggle for the real equality against exploitation and capitalist barbarity. A struggle which unites working men and women under the banners of the class-oriented trade unions.
We pick up the struggle from the seamstresses and weavers of New York in 1857 demanding fewer working hours, equal pay for equal work, safer and better working conditions, complete liberation from the chains of exploitation.
We pick up the struggle from the labor leader Clara Zetkin and the militant women in the Copenhagen Conference in 1910 who dedicated this day to all working women in honor of the US women workers struggles.
We pick up the struggles of all working women in the 70 years of the militant and internationalist struggle of the World Federation of Trade Unions who with their strength and determination contributed for the betterment of the working women and men worldwide.
The struggle of the workers movement and the women workers movement has brought important results and gained significant rights through the decades.
We continue today 158 years after 1857 while the same rights are under attack.
We continue today because one and a half century later, the working hours are increasing contrary to the rate of scientific and technological progress. We continue today because workers and working women’s salaries are decreasing contrary to the tremendous wealth being produced by us. We continue today because still in the 21st century the right to employment, education, healthcare, social security, maternity protection, proper social services, freedom of association, collective bargaining and to real equality are yet not fulfilled.
We continue because the right to peaceful, prosperous and secure life for our families and our children is continuously under threat by imperialist mechanisms and monopolies.
We continue side by side, working women and working men, in the same struggle for all we deserve.
We fight for the lives we deserve not the lives the IMF, the World Bank, the imperialists, the monopolies and the employers want to form for us.
We fight on the side of women and men farmers and self-employed to build the social alliance against exploitation and capitalist barbarity.
International Women’s Day Zindabad!
05 Thursday Mar 2015
All the BSNL Executives as well as Non-Executives are aware of the injustice being done to the low-paid casual contract workers in BSNL and their exploitation by the contractor and those who support them.
The contract worker who is eligible for the wages as per the Labour Ministry Orders are being paid sometimes half of it, somewhere less than that. An unskilled worker in the C Class should get about Rs.7,000 monthly including DA. For semiskilled, skilled and highly skilled, as also in B class and A class cities, the rates are higher. But unfortunately, the hard earned wages of the contract labour is whisked away by the contractor or somebody else who support them. This is cruel, this is brutal.
BSNL employees have a great tradition of fighting against injustice and exploitation. They have opposed them, wherever they have seen it. But now, the injustice is in their own home, the BSNL. How can we tolerate this exploitation in our own home?
My request to each and every BSNL employee, whether non-executive or executive, to all the unions and associations, including that of ITS, is expose this exploitation and help the workers get their due wage. Take action against the contractors who are violating the laws. It is a pity that even after bringing hundreds of cases of violation of labour laws to the notice of the CMD BSNL and other top officers, not even one contractor has been blacklisted. This is a sad commentary on the administration. It is a moot question, whether the administration is on the side of the contractors who violate the law or on the side of law and the exploited workers who work for 10 to 12 hours for the cause of BSNL?
Let everybody have an introspection and come forward determined to end this injustice!
05 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in General, Neo-liberal policy, PSU
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All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA) has called upon the LIC employees to go on strike on 9th March 2015, protesting against the passing of the Insurance Amendment Act in the Lok Sabha, increasing the FDI from 26% to 49%. The Insurance employees have been strongly opposing the bill and had warned the government that they will go on strike if the bill is passed.
In passing the bill, the Congress party played a dirty game. It absented itself from voting on the opposition moved resolution opposing the bill. This helped the government to easily pass the bill.
We fully support the strike of the LIC employees!
05 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
My Best Wishes for a very happy and joyous Holi Celebration to all our comrades, friends and Well-Wishers!
05 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in General, Neo-liberal policy
Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in India for years together has been relegated to the second position with Dilip Shanghvi of the Sun Pharma and Ranbaxi getting the first position with an asset of Rs. 1,32,464 crore. Mukesh Amabni is having Rs. 1,29,862 crore assets.
Both Dilip Shanghvi and Mukesh Ambani have increased their assets with high percentages of growth. While about 30% of the people are poor in the country unable even to have one meal a day, these super rich are increasing their wealth day by day.
This crony capitalism has to end! Expose it and fight against it!
05 Thursday Mar 2015
The BSNL has a debt of Rs. 4,459 crore and MTNL Rs. 14,120 crore as on 2013-14, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the Parliament on 4th March 2013. The total debt of all the telecom operators including the private will come to 2.42 lakh crore.
At the same time, the FDI in telecom sector has increased from$ 177.69 million in 2000-01 to $ 2.66 billion in 2014 taking to a total of FDI $ 16.83 billion.
While the private operators through FDI has got $ 16.83 billion in about 14 years, BSNL has not got any tangible help from government, but even the Rs. 40,000 crore was taken away by it putting BSNL with no money to purchase equipment. The government action is not accidental, it is a well planned one.
While the government make funds available for private companies through FDI, it takes away all the funds from BSNL creating such a situation that it can not purchase equipment and expand.
This crony capitalism has to be defeated.
04 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in CG Employees, General, History, Obituary, Tributes, Uncategorized
5th March 2015 is the 21st death anniversary of Com. N.P.Padmanabhan, former Secretary, NFPTE and the Convener of the powerful Co-ordinating Committee of P and Unions, Kerala, for a tumultuous period of more than 10 years. Meetings will be held in all centres in Kerala to pay homage to this great leader.
Com. Padmanabhan was a charismatic and revolutionary leader. Appointed as Postal Clerk in 1945 in Calicut, within no time he became active in the union. He participated in the successful Postal Strike of 1946. After the formation of UPTW, he became an active worker of the same. When NFPTE was formed in 1954, Comrade Padmanabhan along with Coms. T.M.Janardhanan Master, Ananadan Master, K.Bhaskaran Nair and others organised it in the Malabar area. When the Kerala P and T Circle unions were formed at the Trivandrum Conference in 1961, Com.N.P. was elected as the Asst. Circle Secretary of Postal Class III Union and in 1966 Kollam Conference as the Circle Secretary. Next year at the Palakkad Conference, he was elected as the Convener of the P and T Co-ordinating Committee.
THe Historical One Day Strike of 1968 became a battle ground between the Central Government and Communist Government in Kerala.Central Government wanted all state governments to crush the 19th September 1968 strike of the Central Government employees with an iron fist using the drastic Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA). But the Kerala Government led by Com. E.M.S.Namboodiripad bluntly refused to implement the ESMA against the striking employees. Enraged, the Central Government was proposing to dismiss the state government. Anyhow,this did not happen. But the Indira Gandhi Government at Centre saw to that maximum victimisation was imposed on the employees of Kerala. Hundreds of criminal cases were filed, thousands of Rule-14 Charge Sheets issued, 300 workers terminated and hundreds of employees suspended.Even in 1960 strike, such victimisation did not take place.
The situation was tense. All the Circle and district leaders were either under suspension or termination. To face this brutal attack was not easy. The P and T Co-Ordinating Committee under the leadership of Com. N.P.Padmanabhan organised sustained and continuous struggles against the victimisation. It took about three years to take back all the terminated employees and to reinstate the suspended. But Com. Padmanabhan was not re-instated. He was dismissed from service.
The P and T House, the office of P and T Unions at Trivandrum was the centre point of many unions to get advice and support for their struggles. He was elected as the Secretary of the NFPTE in 1978 and shifted to New Delhi. He continued in that position till 1981.
His health started deteriorating due to the hard work and strain and went back home to Kannur in the late 1980s. He continued his activities from there. On 5th March 1994, he left us forever.
Since 1958, when I joined the P and T and got transfer to Kannur from Kottayam, he had been my leader and guide. It was under his indomitable leadership that we all went on in the 1960 five days strike. I had the opportunity to work with him at Trivandrum during my tenure as Circle Secretary and till his death.
Com. Padmanabhan was a real leader in all respects. The entire P and T movement and especially Kerala comrades lost a revolutionary leader in his death. His body was cremated in the Payyambalam Beach, Kannur, where a memorial is constructed for him among the memorials of leaders of the working class like Coms. A.K.Gopalan, E.K.Nayanar and others. When I went to Kannur to attend the AIBDPA All India Conference in February in 2013, I went there and paid my homage along with Com.P.V.Chandrasekharan, Patron of AIBDPA, A.K.Bhattacharjee, President AIBDPA, K.G.Jayaraj, General secretary AIBDPA and Com. Bhaskaran AIBDPA leader at Kannur.
Red Salute to Com. N.P.Padmanabhan, the Revolutionary leader! His memory will always be with us.
