In the last membership verification T.Nadu and Chennai circles could not get majority despite very hard and sincere effort of our comrades. But the two meetings attended and addressed by All India President at Madurai (T.Nadu) and Chennai gave clear signal that in both circles BSNLEU/United Forum will win with convincing majority.

The meeting at Madurai was held in the evening of 18th January at the office premises. More than 500 comrades were present including a good number of  women comrades. Com. Veluchamy, Dist. President, BSNLEU presided. Com. Suryan, Dist. Secretary welcomed all. The All India and Circle leaders were honoured by garlanding and covering by shawls. Coms. R.Venkitaraman, President, TEPU, R.Ravindran, General Secretary, SEWA BSNL, Circle Secretaries Coms. S.Chellappa  ( BSNLEU), P.N.Perumal (SEWA BSNL), A.Chellapandyan (TEPU), Marimuthu, Circle President (BSNLEU) and other leaders addressed. The presence and address of Com. P.Andiappan, General Secretary of the newly formed FNTOBEA and Com,R.V.Jayaraman, Circle Secretary of the same union  and their support to the United Forum was very much welcomed by the house. This is a union formed by comrades of FNTO who differed with the wrong line taken by FNTO. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener, United Forum and President BSNLEU congratulated the  workers for the massive participation and support to United Forum. He mentioned that T.Nadu will certainly win the election this time seeing the massive participation and enthusiasm of the workers. He focused on the need to save and strengthen BSNL and the responsibility of the workers in this respect. He also mentioned about the struggles organised against disinvestment, VRS etc, by the BSNL workers. He explained the next Charter of Demands which have to be fulfilled in the next two years. The meeting assured the All India leaders that T.Nadu will certainly rewrite the history and will ensure a good majority and win in the ensuing verification.

The meeting at Chennai was held at the Anna Road Exchange premises on 19th January 2011. A presidium  of Circle Presidents consisting of Coms. B.Subramaniam (BSNLEU), G.Y.Sekar (BSNLEU), A.Subramanyan (SEWA BSNL), V.Sudaram (AIOBC BSNL), A.Duraikannu (BSNLMS) and Rajendran (FNTOBEA) conducted the proceedings. The meeting was attended by moe than 1000 workers. A large number of women comrades were present as usual. Coms. V.A.N.Namboodiri, All India President, BSNLEU, R.Venkitaraman, President, TEPU, V.Subburaman, General Secretary, TEPU, R.Ravindran, General Secretary, SEWA BSNL, P.Andiappan, General Secretary, FNTOBEA, Beema Rao, GS NFTBE, Punitha Udayakumar, All India Vice-President, BSNLEUCircle Secretries K.Govinda Raj (BSNLEU), J.Vijayakumar (TEPU), Murugu Tamilarasu (SEWA BSNL) Kirubhandum (BSNLMS), E.Prabhakaran (AIOBC BSNL)R.Kothandan (FNTOBEA) Mouli. Co-ord, inator NFTBE and other leaders attended /addressed.

The meeting was a clear declaration that Chennai Circle will get a good majority in the verification and will strengthen United Forum and BSNLEU further.

Comrades of Punjab Circle under the leadership of Circle President Com. R.L.Moudgil and Circle Secretary Com. Balbir Singh are  fully prepared to face the verification and get a very good majority of the votes for BSNLEU. This is the message  that Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, All India President got when he along with th above two comrades attended and addressed meetings at Patiala and Chandigarh on 17th January 2011.

The first meeting was held at Patiala at about 11.00 hours presided over by Com. Raghubir Singh. Com.Narindra Pal Sharma, District Secretary welcomed all. All the leaders were garlanded and honoured by the District Union leaders. Coms. Balbir Singh, Circle Secretary, R.L.Moudgil, Circle President, Naveen Yadav, Dist. Secretary, SNATTA, Ludhiana, Sadiq Ahmad  and other leaders addressed. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri in his address mentioned about the grand achievements of the United Forum/BSNLEU in the last 6 years of recognition and also mentioned about the 40 points Charter of Demands adopted by the United Forum for settlement in the next two years. He also stated that BSNLEU had taken up the issues of all cadres in the past and will take the issues in the same way in future also. He stressed that the fight to save and strengthen BSNL will be taken as the foremost task by the union.

The next meeting was at Chandigarh, the capital city of Punjab. By the time the Circle and All India leaders reached, the meeting has started. Com.Namboodiri, All India President and other leaders were greeted by garlanding and shouting of slogans. The massive meeting participated by more than 700 workers and a large number of women employees was presided over by Com. Bhaglal. Coms. H.S.Dhillon  and Karan Chander, District Secretaries of Chandigarh SSA and CGM(O) respectively welcomed.  The meeting was addressed by Coms. R.L.Moudgil, Asst. General Secretary, Balbir Singh, Circle Secretary and other leaders. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri in his detailed address spoke about the great achievements of the United Forum/BSNLEU in the last two years. The discrimination meted out to the non-executives in wage revision, Promotion Policy etc. in the past have been removed to a big extent. He explained the Charter of Demands adopted by the UF for the next two years. The largely attended meeting assured the leaders that the comrades of Punjab are fully with BSNLEU and will give a huge majority to it in the coming verification. In both the meetings a good number of DRTTAs attended and supported BSNLEU.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) will be introduced all over India from 20th January 2011 and the same will be announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as per reports in the press. As already indicated earlier, it will be a churning which will result in many big companies losing their subscribers if the services are not up to the mark. BSNL is one such company which has got to gear up its services to ensure that its subscribers do not shift for lack of better services. Each and every worker in addition to the management has to ensure a very good service so that subscribers do not shift away.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated on 19th January that there is no instant solution to bring back the black money stashed away in the foreign banks. He also told that the information with the government in this connection can not be made public due to treaty obligations.

This iv very surprising! When the government has got information about the black money put in the foreign banks why is it that it is not made public and the amount confiscated by the Government? It means that the Government is not prepared to take any action against these big people; probably many of its own supporters are there.

At the same time, the Supreme Court has expressed its serious alarm over this plunder of the Nation and termed it as ” pure and simple theft of national money.” Supreme Court asked the Government why the list can not be published.  Of course, there are many skeletons in the cup-board for the government to hide.

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