The period between 15th December and 15th January and also 15th June to 15th July every year is the time when new members are got enrolled and submitted to the BSNL Management for the purpose of deduction of membership from the salary of the official and remitted to the union. This practice has been going through the last 11 years, after the Membership Verification in BSNL has started 11 years back.
The deduction of subscription was only limited to the recognised union at the initial stage. Later on the demand of certain unions, the then Communications Minister directed that deduction be done in the case of all applicant unions. So, at present all the 18 applicant unions in the VI Membership Verification are granted the facility of deduction of membership from the salary.
When only the recognised union was allowed this facility, there was undue compulsion on the workers to subscribe to it. The United Forum of BSNL Unions constituted under the initiative of BSNLEU and faced the membership verification together and got recognition from the II Verification in 2004, the deduction of membership of these unions were done through BSNLEU, which remitted the same to the concerned unions. However, there were a few disputes at the local levels between BSNLEU and its allies on the calculation of the membership, but they were smoothly settled at the all Indi level. Once the applicant unions were allowed the deduction from salary, this problem was settled.
The Membership of a Union and the votes it gets in the verification varies. Sometimes you get fewer votes than membership and sometimes more. It depends on so many factors, mainly on the performance of the concerned union. Another factor is the % of members who vote.
Increasing the membership is an important factor for each and every union. The one month period during June-July and December-January is maximum utilised by the unions for this purpose. BSNLEU is not different.
BSNLEU had a tradition of increasing its membership, even when the number of non-executives were being reduced through retirement and no recruitment. BSNLEU which had only about 60,000 members at the time of formation in 2001, gradually increased the membership to about 1,40,000 – 1,45,000 at its peak. But the drastic retirement of about 10,000 – 15,000 employees in every year for the last few years also saw a reduction in membership, which at present is about 1,00,000 to 1,10,000. The membership of all the unions has been reduced similarly.
BSNL Employees Union, whether it was recognised or not recognised, has done yeomen service to the cause of the workers all along. The Unions, which merged and formed BSNLEU after formation of BSNL, were the progressive section of workers, which fought against privatization of services, corporatisation and anti-worker policies of the government. The struggles organised under the National Action Committee in the 1990s were historic. While the then recognised unions, NFTE and FNTO, compromised with the DoT on many issues, including restructuring, reduction of staff, ban on recruitment etc. the correct trade union path was displayed by the NAC.
After the formation of BSNL, BSNLEU took a pivotal role and ensured a beneficial wage conversion from the CDA to IDA w.e.f. from 01-10-2000. After getting recognition from 2004 onwards, BSNLEU through discussion and also struggles settled a list of long pending demands. The Wage Revision Agreement from 01-01-2007 was a record itself, which benefitted the workers in a big way and brought the pay scales to equal or more than many profit making PSUs. The NEPP, ensuring 4 time bound promotions to every non-executives in their service, was another historical achievement. The achievement of BSNLEU and United Forum is well known to the workers and need no elaboration at this stage.
Of course, there are still many urgent problems to be settled like the stagnation of pay, reduction of pay to those appointed after 01-01-2007, retirement / pension benefits of BSNL appointed employees, wage revision anomalies etc. The recent notice for strike by BSNLEU and the resultant negotiation has opened the door for the settlement of some of these issues. Maximum effort is being made by BSNLEU for early settlement of these.
The sustained struggle under the Joint Action Committee, Joint Forum/Forum of BSNL Unions Associations against privatisation, disinvestment, VRS and also for strengthening BSNL and improving its services have been appreciated by not only BSNL workers, but workers in other PSUs also. BSNLEU can take pride that it has taken a pivotal role in forming the JAC as also in the sustained struggles.`
BSNLEU is approaching the workers with these achievements made already and the demands it has put forward for settlement. Leaders and workers of BSNLEU at all levels have to take the Membership Campaign in a serious way and meet all the workers and try to get more and more membership. We have to remember that a strong and united organization alone can bring benefits to the workers.
Let us make the Membership Campaign a great success! BSNLEU Zindabad!