10 associations to participate in the Executives’ Membership Verification

15 Saturday Oct 2016

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The BSNL Management has decided to hold the membership verification for executive associations for grant of recognition on 16th November 2016. 10 associations have applied for participation, including SNEA and AIBSNLEA. There will be only the name of the association in the ballot paper, not the symbol. The election is through secret ballot. Only one association will be recognised.

From the Past (34) – Assam P and T Strike, 1971, against attack on Telephone Exchange

15 Saturday Oct 2016

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The following is an epic struggle of the P and T workers in Assam to safe gusrd the workers from outsiders’ attacks.

On 30th January 1971, Ex-MLA one R.M.Das entered the Karimganj exchange with about 100 persons and beat the telephone operators on duty, including ladies, causing severe injuries.

On complaint, 6 miscreants were arrested, but not  the main accused, due to his influence in the government. Assam P and Co-ordinating Committee leaders met the Chief Minister on 2nd February and requested for action against the culprits, but nothing was done.  This infuriated the employees, who went on strike from the same day.

The entire P and T services in Assam were at a standstill. NFPTE General Secretary Com.A.S.Rajan and other General Secretaries met the Communications Minister and apprised him of the serious situation. The Minister assured to take immediate action against the culprits, police protection will be provided to the staff, no disciplinary action will be taken against the officials and also no dies-non will be issued.

On the basis of these assurances, the strike was called on the 6th February 1971.

It is through such local struggles that NFPTE became a very powerful organisation in due course.

Variable DA for Minimum Wages revised for Contract Labour from 01-10-2016

15 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by in BSNLCCWF - Casual and Contract workers

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The Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) has issued orders on 30-09-2016 revising the Variable DA for contract workers w.e.f. 01-10-2016. Accordingly, the unskilled contract worker in ‘C’Class cities will get Rs. 250 as daily wage. For the semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled as also in B class and A class cities, the daily wages will be higher.

The order is published in the BSNLCCWF website: bsnlccwf.com

Air India posts Operational profit of Rs. 105 crores for 2015-16

15 Saturday Oct 2016

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It is good news! Air India has posted an operational profit of Rs. 105 crores for 2015-16 improving from its position of Rs. 5,859 crores  loss during the last year. This year also after depreciation, there will a loss of about Rs. 3,587 crores.

The total earning for this year comes to Rs. 20,526 crore, which is almost as of last year. But due to increase in seat factor and less expenditure, it has posted operational profit.

Congratulations to the management and employees of Air india for this improvement!

AIBDPA Odisha Circle Union formed

14 Friday Oct 2016

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AIBDPA Odisha Circle Union was formed in the formation conference held at Bhubaneswar today, 14th October 2016. Pensioners from various SSAs of Odisha participated. They were very enthusiastic. Com.P.R.Das, veteran leader and President BSNLEU presided. Com.Sheik Hussain, Convener welcomed all. Senior leader Com.Sahdev Biswal, Circle Secretary BSNLEU, Com.S.R.Das and others addressed.

Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Advisor BSNLEU, inaugurated the Conference. He congratulated BSNLEU and the Pensioners for taking initiative for formation of AIBDPA Circle union.He explained the formation of AIBDPA, the struggles it has organised for the cause of the Pensioners including 78.2% IDA Pension fixation etc. The policy and programme of AIBDPA was explained. He spoke about the International movement of Pensioners and Retirees. He called the pensioners to strengthen the organisation.

The following office bearers were elected unanimously for the AIBDPA Circle Union:

Advisor: Com.P.R.Das,  President: Com.A.C.Mohanty,   Circle Secretary: Com.Sahdev Biswal, Treasurer Com.Ramachandra Jena.

The Conference decided to enrol at least 1000 members before the end of the year.More than 150 members were enrolled on the spot.Many comrades subscribed to Telepension

er. 

The Conference ended with the vote of thanks by the President.

Condolence Meeting paying homage to Com. Desraj Sharma

13 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by in Obituary, Tributes, P&T TU Movement

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A well attended meeting was held on 12th October 2016 at the M.P.Club North Block to pay homage to Com. Desraj Sharma, veteran leader and former Deputy Secretary General NFPE and General Secretary of Postmen Union, who passed away on 24-09-2016. The meeting was presided by President P.IV Union. Com. R.Seetha Lakshmi, General Secretary, P.IV. Union welcomed all. All the participants paid homage to Com. Desraj Sharma by paying floral tributes to the Photo placed near the stage.
Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, Advisor, AIBDPA spoke about the great contribution of Com. Desraj Sharma to the Postal workers in general and Postmen and EDAs in particular. He was a true disciple of the great leader Com.K.Adinarayana, former Secretary General of NFPE and General Secretary P.IV Union for long period. He also mentioned about the close relation with him for the last four decades or more. He expressed deep grief at the demise of Com. Desraj and conveyed condolence to the family members who were present.
Coms. M.Krishnan, Secretary General, Confederation of CG Employees and Workers, Giriraj Sharma, President, NFPE, V.Bhattacharjee, General Secretary, Civil Audit Association and other leaders addressed and paid their homage to the deceased leader.

Red Salute to Com. Desraj Sharma!

New A.P.Circle inaugurated

12 Wednesday Oct 2016

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By  bifurcation of the undivided A.P. Circle, new A.P.Circle has been inaugurated at Vijayawada in the presence of Communications Minister Manoj Sinha, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu. CMD BSNL Anupam Shrivastava was also present. The Postal Circle also has been bifurcated and new A.P.Circle formed.

Undivided A.P.Circle which was the biggest in terms of employees, will have to step back in favour of Maharashtra Circle. However, with regard to area, Rajasthan will be the biggest Circle.

I hope that the new set up in new A.P.Circle will be effectively formed immediately so that neither the service nor the issues of the employees suffer. The assurances of the Chief Minister for  full support in providing infrastructure including land, building etc need to be honoured.

 

Merger of two state banks on the govt. agenda

12 Wednesday Oct 2016

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Shri Vinod Rai, Chief of Banks Board Bureau and former CAG, has stated that two PSU state banks headquartered at Mumbai are proposed to be merged.

This is not a new proposal as such. The government had earlier proposed the merger of all the state banks with the State Bank of India. The trade unions have opposed these mergers on the count that many branches will be closed and retrenchment will take place.

Now the merger of two PSU state banks are going to be merged as per BBB Chied Vinod Rai. These exercises are nothing but to escape from the ‘bad loans'(NPA) and to reduce the power of the SBI and State banks in order to favour the private banks.

From the Past (33) – NFPTE, A Role Model for Trade Unions!

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by in P&T TU History, P&T TU Movement

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I have been going through the old journals and records of NFPTE in preparation for writing some articles on the P and T Trade Union history. National Federation of P and T Employees was formed on 24th November 1954, by merging all the unions of the Class III and Class IV employees in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. The structure was this way: 9 All India Unions, one union each for the class III and Class IV employees in Postal, RMS, Telegraph Engineering ( Telephones) and Telegraph Traffic and one for the P and T employees working in the administrative office of the Post Master General. (PMG both for Posts and Telegraphs). All the 9 All India Unions were compulsorily affiliated to NFPTE. Since this was under a Realignment Scheme agreed by both Unions and Department, recognition was granted to all the unions and Federation with the condition that no new unions will be formed, affiliated or recognised. Certain aspects of the then functioning are given below:

  1. All the Unions and Federation were accommodated in the same (rented ) building named P and T House, 9, Pusa Road, New Delhi.
  2. Regular meetings of the Federal Executive were held.
  3. Monthly journal/s were published by the Federation and All India Unions.
  4. Federal Council and All India Conferences were regularly held annually and Office-bearers elected. Interestingly, there seemed to be contest in elections in almost all Federal Councils.
  5. The Statement of Receipts and Payments as also the quota received from the hundreds of Branch Unions were regularly published in the monthly journals.
  6. The deliberations of the  Working Committee Meetings / Federal Executives as also All India Conferences / Federal Council, were reported in detail, with the issues discussed, the opinion expressed by each office-bearer/ member/delegates, the decisions arrived etc.  enabling the reader to clearly understand the different view points and the speakers who expressed, what opinions etc.
  7. There were regular reports about the Parliament debates with regard to the P and T matters, some times verbatim, ( there was separate budget for P and T, just like the Railways). Reports on the trade union movements in various countries, regular report of the PTTI (Posts, Telegraph, Telephone International), articles on trade unions and socialism by well known trade union leaders, tour report of the leaders, Readers views, minutes of the meetings with the government and Department etc. were published in full with the names of the participants. The correspondence with the government and the replies was a regular feature.
  8. These monthly journals were printed in very small types having about 40 pages or more.  I was surprised how there was time for the office-bearers to go through the proof ( only hand composing at that time, which have to be gone through more than once) and correct it. Despite this, I could hardly find any mistake.
  9. There was sustained fight against victimisation of leaders and workers. Even all India leaders were not spared.
  10. The President of almost all the unions and Federation were mostly trade union leaders who are Members of Parliament. This enabled effective discussion in the parliament on the issues of P ant and its workers.

In fact, such systematic functioning of NFPTE and affiliated Unions strengthened them. It is not surprising that  other service unions at that time viewed NFPTE as a role model.

Allot Spectrum free to BSNL and MTNL

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

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All the major telecom companies viz. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular, Tata Tele Services, Rcom and Aircel, have participated in the spectrum auction held recently and got sufficient spectrum for their service and upgradation to 4G.

But what about BSNL and MTNL? Neither they have got money nor they are permitted to participate in the auction. Last time also they were not allowed to participate, but BSNL was compelled to purchase spectrum at the highest rate in the auction. The government ensured that all the Rs.40,000 crore with BSNL was somehow snatched so that it will not be able to purchase equipment, spectrum etc.

This anti-PSU, pro-corporate role of the government has to be exposed among the public in a big way. It is also necessary that the Forum of BSNL Unions and Associations, ITSA and other such organisations should raise their voice for getting free spectrum and sufficient funds for the expansion, modernisation and upgradation of technology and better service. It should be taken without any further delay.