The All India Regional Rural Bank Employees Association (AIRRBEA) secretary general Dilip Kumar Mukherjee has issued the following statement:
About 70000 officers and employees of 82 regional banks (popularly known as Gramin Bank) working at around 17000 rural branches in all the states of the country will go for strike for one day on June 8, 2012 with the following long  pending demands: 1.     Parity of Pension 2.     Formation of National Rural Bank of India 3.     Regularization/absorption of part-time/daily waged workers in RRBs 4.     Withdrawal of government order on HR policy 5.     Representation of workman and officer in the Board of Management
In spite of the specific direction of the Hon’ble Supreme court to extend parity of wage structure to the RRB staff, more specifically by Hon’ble Karnataka High Court & Rajasthan High Court  to extend parity of pension benefits, government of India has not yet extended the benefit of pension to the RRB staff.
AIRRBEA has been demanding for the constitution of National Rural Bank of India with state level RRB under it with the amalgamation of all the RRBs exclusively for rural and agricultural credit on delinking the RRBs from Sponsor banks. All these demands are pending with the Government.

Accusing Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh of making policy statements on Air India outside Parliament during the session period, the CPI(M) on Tuesday moved a privilege notice against him in the Lok Sabha. “We have tabled a notice of privilege against the Civil Aviation Minister (Ajit Singh) in the House and demanded that he come and explain why he made policy statements on the issue outside when Parliament is in session,” CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia told reporters here. His statement came soon after BJP leader and former Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said Mr. Singh committed breach of privilege and a notice would be moved against him in the Lok Sabha. The House had earlier witnessed a heated debate with Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and several others, including Mr. Acharia, Mr. Hussain and Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI), castigating the Minister for making policy statements to the media on issues like privatisation of Air India when Parliament was in session. Mr. Acharia and his party colleague Sitaram Yechury also appealed to both the pilots and the government to urgently restore normalcy in Air India’s flight schedules to end the continued inconvenience to passengers. Mr. Yechury said the Parliamentary Standing Committee, headed by him, had twice pointed out serious problems with the merger of the two erstwhile state-run carriers, Indian Airlines and Air India. This was also pointed out by the Committee on Public Undertakings. Observing that the Standing Committee had recommended that the two airlines continue to function separately but under a single holding company, he said, “But the government did not accept our recommendations and today the problems, which we had warned of three-four years ago, had occurred”.  (Courtsey : Ganashakti )

13th May 2012 was celebrated by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha holding separate sessions and later a joint session. The President, Vice-President, Speaker, Prime minister as also the leaders of the various parties addressed the sessions. The speakers remembered the earlier important developments and also suggested how the conduct of the parliament can be improved, including a minimum sittings in a year. It was very interesting and informative to hear the speeches. If all the political parties and the leaders stick to the various good suggestions, there is no doubt that the Indian Democracy will march ahead to new heights.

But by the time the separate sessions were to end, there were hardly ten to twenty members present. Of course it continuous and MPs might have gone for lunch. But they should have ensured that at least a sizable number are present.

The pilots of the Air India is on agitation for the last 6 days and thousands of travellers have been put  to difficulty due to the cancellation of the flights. The former Air India Pilots are complaining that they are being completely ignored and denied in the training of the new ‘Dream Liner’ planes compared to the former Indian Airlines pilots. We do not know the details of their demands etc. The government has declared a tough stand there will no talk with the pilots union, unless the agitation is called off. The union has been derecognised, 71 pilots have been sacked and action is being taken to cancel the licences of the agitating pilots.

Is it the method to be adopted when the workers are on struggle. Why can’t the minister agree to talk with the union and sort out the issue. Settlement is the next stage,but why can’t you talk and try for a solution? The government may also remember that all the employees including the pilots are working without receiving the salary for months.

Such hard and stubborn stand taken by the government of India in the 1960 strike by the central government employees  terming it as Civil Rebellion and the victimisation of lakhs of employees by arresting, jailing, dismissing, terminating, suspending and what not, has not helped the government. In the face of public opinion and further struggles, the victimisation had to be stopped and every employee to be reinstated. In a democracy it is the responsibility of the government to discuss and settle the grievances of the workers to the extent possible. The best way to sort out the issues is an immediate dialogue by the Minister and Air India Management  with the agitating pilots. I hope the government will do it to end the unpleasant situation.

It seems that the Air India management is more interested in taking action against the pilots who are on strike, instead of discussing with them and settling the matter.  In fact the present gloomy situation has arisen only because of the utter failure of the management and the wrong policy direction of the government which is in haste to implement the neo-liberal policy of disinvestment and privatisation. Workers are made scapegoats. The Supreme Cour seems to have understood this position.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain Air India’s plea for initiating contempt proceedings against Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) for allegedly obstructing implementation of its order on training of pilots for Dreamliner aircraft. A Bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur said that they (pilots) have done nothing, which amounts to contempt of court and suggested the airlines to speak with them to sort out the differences. “They have done nothing for obstruction of justice or to bring disrepute to the court. Your problem is with them. You sit with them and sort out the differences. Don’t resort to contempt proceedings,” the Bench said. It further said that if the strike is illegal, then the airlines can take action against them. “Rest assured that if there is slightest contempt of court, and then we would ourselves initiate proceedings against them,” the Bench further said. Air India had on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against the office-bearers of the Guild by resorting to protest action, which, it said, disrupted international flight operations of the airline and amounted to contempt of the apex court orders.

What is happening in Tata Communications Ltd (former VSNL)?

 Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) was one of the first PSUs privatised by handing over to Tata for a mere Rs. 1439 crores in 2002. Now the name of the company has also been changed to Tata Communications Limited (TCL). What is happening in the TCL is not much known. But it is a must for any worker to know what happens to the workers in a privatised PSU.

Before being corporatized in to a PSU, VSNL was Overseas Communications, a section of the Department of Telecom.  It was corporatized with the specific intention of handing over this lucrative service to the private companies. In 2002, it was sold to the Tatas and an agreement was made on 06-02-2002 called “Share Purchase and Share Holder Agreement” between the government and the Tatas. As per this agreement, the workers were assured that there will be no retrenchment of the existing employees. The SC/ST employees, the disabled and employees coming under weaker sections will continue to get all the benefits they were enjoying earlier and they also will not be retrenched.

But what happened afterwards is entirely different from the agreement and assurances. The existing employees were harassed and were inhumanly treated by the new management. Many had to leave the company to escape from harassment and victimisation. While there were about 2600 employees at the time of privatisation, there are only about 700 left in service now.

In between, about 7,000 new employees were recruited. Their wages etc. were revised but these benefits were denied to the earlier employees. There is severe discrimination in the treatment meted out to the existing workers compared to the newly recruited workers. Further, the Tata management is now compelling all the former VSNL employees to resign and leave the company. They are threatened with retrenchment if they don’t opt for resignation.

All these anti-worker decisions of the TCL are completely against the assurances and agreement made at the time of handing over the company to the present owners. The workers denied of justice by the management have approached the court to stop the retrenchment. The workers have also demanded that they be repatriated to the DOT.

The cases of the other PSUs like BALCO, Centaur Hotels etc. which have been privatised, are not different. Humiliation, harassment, retrenchment etc. are the treatment meted out to the former PSU workers, including women.

The central government is implementing the neo-liberal policy aggressively and these are part of the same. India Inc, MNCs, big business and the media have been completely singing praise of these anti-worker policies. But, in fact, this policy of disinvestment, privatisation etc, are nothing but loot of the assets of the nation by the unscrupulous and profit hungry MNCs and big business with the full support of the ruling classes.

Hence it is the responsibility and duty of the working class to strongly oppose these anti-people, anti-worker policies and their implementation through sustained and mighty joint struggles and defeat them.

…..

It has been reported in the press that MTNL is proposing VRS for 20,000 employees. If my memory is correct, VRS has been implemented about three times in MTNL. Whether the company is saved by these VRSs. No. It is not through VRS that the company is to improve. It is by better management, support from the government and hard work by employees through which the revenue and profit can be increased.

The following are the top 10 profitable CPSEs in the country:

Name                                    Profit in crore

1. ONGC                               18,924.03

2. NTPC                                  9,102.59

3. Indian Oil Corpn.             7,445.48

4. MMDC                               6,499.22

5. BHEL                                 6,011.20

6. SAIL                                   4,904.74

7. Coal India  Ltd.                4,696.10

8. GAIL India Ltd.               3,561.13

9. Oil India Ltd.                   2,887.73

10.Power Grid Corpn.        2,696.11

BSNL was in the list of top ten before 2006-07, but its profit started reducing and is in loss now. Can’t all of us try together and bring the BSNL back to its past glory. Of course, the anti-PSU policy of the government and the inefficient management have to be changed; also the mindset of the workers for a better service to the people.

As pointed out yesterday in this post, there may be strong opposition on the part of Unions of Air India in the formation of the subsidiary units viz. AI Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) and AI Transport Services Ltd.(AITSL) and shifting around 19,000 employees to these, from the existing strength of 38,000 including 11,000 on contract.  What is the benefit of formation of new two companies is not explained. Further, there is the real danger of  losing all the existing benefits like promotion, increments, allowances etc. which the employees are getting now. While the unions have generally opposed, all the unions are going to meet on 16th April to finalise their approach and strategy to defend the interests of the workers.

We will support the struggle of the AI workers for their right to survive and protect their interests.