The Kerala BSNLEU comrades have assured Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, President, BSNLEU that they will be in the forefront in the membership verification and will ensure further more support to BSNLEU in this verification. Com. Namboodiri was touring Kerala Circle from 10th January 2011. A small report of the tour:

Thiruvananthapuram : The Kerala tour started from Thiruvanathapuram on 10th January 2011. The first meeting was held at PGM office, TVM. More than 500 workers were waiting eagerly for the arrival of Com. VAN Namboodiri, founder General Secretary and present President of BSNLEU. He was warmly greeted by the workers. Com.Namboodiri, inaugurating the Convention spoke in detail about the achievements of BSNLEU /United Forum since the last few years, including uniting the entire BSNL workers for sustained struggle against the anti-workers policies of the Government and for improving BSNL and its services. During the period, despite severe adverse conditions, BSNLEU has been able to get a very good wage revision as also Promotion Policy. He mentioned about other achievements also. Coms. R.Muralidharan Nair, Asst. General Secretary,  K.Mohanan, Circle Secretary, BSNLEU and others addressed.Com.K.Radhakrishna Kurup preside and V.S.Srikumaran Nair proposed vote of thanks.

Thiruvanathapuram CGM Office: As usual, almost the entire staff of CGM office was present in the meeting. Com. G.Bhaskaran presided. Com.C.Santhosh Kumar, Dist. Secretary, welcomed and assured the leaders that this time also. high % of votes will be received by BSNLEU in the CGM Office. Com. VAN Namboodiri inaugurated the Convention and spoke about achievements and sought full support not only from the members but also from other employees. Coms. A.V.Kuriakose, Circle President, BSNLEU, K.Mohanan, Circle Secretary and R.Muralidharan Nair, AGS addressed.

Kollam: Next meeting on 10th January was at Kollam SSA. The large number of employees gathered at the GM office premsies welcomed Com. Namboodiri and other leaders with shouting of slogans. The convention was presided by Com. K.Mohanan Pillai, District  Vice-President. Com. C.Muralidharan Pillai, Dist. Secretary welcomed all. General Secretary was garlanded by all the Branch Secretaries, AIBDPA, Mahila Committee, Security Staff Association  and others. Inaugurating the Convention, Com.Namboodiri on the one side, spoke about the achievements of BSNLEU and on the other side lambasted the double talk of NFTE and FNTO and their malicious propaganda. Coms. Mohanan, Circle Secretary, A.V.Kuriakose, Circle President, R.Muralidharan Nair, AGS, Venu Gopala Pillai, Circle President (TEPU),  Aravindakshan Nair,(AIBDPA), K.N.Jyothi Lakshmi, Convener, Circle Mahila Committee, and other leaders were present /spoke.

Order has been issued for introducing EPF for casual labours. The case was taken by the BSNLEU and BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Federation, Now orders been issued introducing the same. One more feather in the cap for both the organisations. Please visit www.bsnleuchq.com for the order.

President, General Secretary and all other office-bearers of BSNLEU and United Forum are on hectic tour covering each and every SSA along with the concerned Circle Secretaries. The feed back from the leaders are very much encouraging. The workers, despite malicious propaganda by certain unions, are very happy with the good wage revision as also NEPP. Hundreds of other issues have also been settled.

Reports are also being received about many comrades joining BSNLEU from other unions like NFTE, FNTO, SNATTA etc.  We welcome all of them. As the recognised union, which is again going to  be the recognised union, we assure that all the issues of the workers will be promptly taken by us.

After the facts of the discussion between BSNLEU and SNATTA on 16th December 2010 has been put in the BSNLEU website, SNATTA leaders have become panicky and is desperately trying for damage control. Since the truth has come out, they have become nervous and are trying to hide the real facts that have happened during the discussions.

Now they publish in their website that they have not demanded four seats and were satisfied with two seats. What they stated was that NFTE has offered 4 seats and unless the same is given by BSNLEU, it will be difficult for them. Regarding the issues of Direct Recruited TTAs, for that matter any cadre or any section, we have made it clear that it is the responsibility of BSNLEU, as the recognised union, to take up each and every case and that it will take also.

It is now clear that the SNATTA leaders have managed to  take a decision to desert BSNLEU and join with NFTE by hiding the truth of the discussions from their committee members and also by distorting completely what has happened in the discussions. The main issue of dispute was about the seats and even that they told that they will intimate BSNLEU later. But they never called and it was from their website only that we could get the information that they have joined NFTE alliance.

The truth has now come out. It is now for the Direct Recruited TTAs, whether members of SNATTA or not, to realise how much untrue stories are told by SNATTA leaders to justify their wrong  decision, which is not in the interest of the Direct Recruited TTAs.

We are at a loss to understand what happened between the talks with BSNLEU and before their final decision was taken?

I will be leaving CHQ for an organisational  tour of Kerala in the  next week in connection with the membership verification. It is also an opportunity to meet old comrades who were working with me for a long period before I shifted to CHQ, Delhi.

Kerala was always in the forefront of struggle. It was a bulwark for defending the rights of the workers. In all the verifications it stood in the forefront. This time also the same feat will be repeated, no doubt. Congratulations for Kerala Comrades!

United Forum of BSNL Unions has called upon all the affiliated organisations to organise massive dharnas on 11th January 2011 with the following demands:

1. 78.2% IDA fixation     2. Payment of Bonus for 2009- 2010. 3. modification of NEPP as demanded by the Union. 4. Reduction in salary to those appointed on or after 01-01-2011 – corrective measures required. 5. Early introduction of NE-12 pay scale.             ORGANISE THE PROGRAMME EFFECTIVELY WITH MASS PARTICIPATION.

The Telecom Factories  are the centres for manufacture of telecom equipments and infrastructure for the last so many decades. They were earlier called as P&T Workshops. The first P&T Workshop was started  in Alipore (Calcutta) in 1855 to manufacture  telegraph equipments.  The second  P&T Workshop was started at Bombay in 1943 by taking over Bombay Telephone Company, a private company, which was formed in 1935. Jabalpur P&T Work shop was started almost at the same time, at  the time of Second World War,  to ensure the manufacture of telecom equipments, in case Calcutta Workshop is captured by Japan, which was fast-moving towards India. In 1968, the name of P&T Workshop was changed in to Telecom Factory. The other four factories, Gopalpur, Kharagpur, Bhilai and Richai were started later.

These P&T Workshops /Telecom Factories used to manufacture all telegraph and telephone equipments including telephone posts, manual / trunk telephone exchanges etc.  required by the P&T Department. After the establishment of Indian Telephone Industries (ITI ), one of the first Public Sector Units (PSU) in the country, the manufacture of boards etc. were shifted gradually and by 1980, the production of trunk board etc. was completely stopped in the factories. The other products continued to be manufactured in the TFs. Due to induction of latest technology in telecom sector, many of these  products became out-dated and those production lines were closed.

At present, DP Box, MDF, Modems,Line Jack Unit, hand telephones, STD Pay Phones, CT Box, Drop Wire Cards etc. are being manufactured. After introduction of mobile phones, production of towers also have started in a big way. Certain parts of Optical fibre, Sim Cards etc. are also manufactured.

The Fifth Pay Commission recommended either closure or privatisation of the Telecom Factories. At that time, All india Telecom Employees Union (Namboodiri), took up the matter with the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Communications headed by Shri Somnath Chatterjee and presented our view-point that the factories should not be closed but should be modernised and improved. The Standing Committee kindly accepted our suggestions and  also recommended modernisation. Some modernisation was done, but much more is to be done.

After formation of BSNL, there was a move to close down Kharagpur Factory. As per the call of BSNLEU local struggle started and after discussion at All India level, the management agreed not to close and started manufacture of towers there.

After BSNLEU got recognition, it has been taking the various issues connected with the development and modernisation of the TFs. On the demand of the staff side in the National Council, a committee was constituted with Shri R.P.Nigam, DDG(TF), Corporate office and Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, General Secretary, BSNLEU & Secretary, Staff Side to visit all the seven TFs and recommend the required modifications for improvement as also to look the staff amenities. The Committee visited all the Factories along with the concerned CGM Telecom Factory, Officers of the Civil Wing etc. and submitted its recommendations. Some of these were implemented, but some are kept in the close storage by the management. After the visit of the committee the working conditions were of course improved a lot. But still there are a lot of things to be done. The immediate task is to introduce new projects involving latest technologies and appointing specialised Engineers suited to the requirement.

The workers in the Factories belong to regular workers as well as industrial workers. BSNLEU has been consistently taking with the management to ensure that the industrial workers are also treated as other regular workers. Union has also demanded that the recommendations of the Restructuring committee be implemented in full after discussion with the union. The Union’s demand to name the TF as BSNL Factory was agreed to by the management, but is not so far implemented. The industrial workers were organised in P&T Industrial Workers Union under the legendary leadership of Com. Sisir Bhattacharjee, the senior most leader P&T at present. At the time of formation of BSNL Employees Union in 2001, this union merged with it. Most of the Industrial and Non-industrial workers in these 7 factories are members of the BSNL Employees Union.

I will be posting another write-up later about the specific problems of the workers in the Factories and also how to improve and modernise the Telecom Factories.

Kapil Sibal, Communications & IT Minister, has issued a statement on 7th January 2010 justifying the 2G Spectrum allocation done by A.Raja, former Communications Minister. He has also stated that the report of the CAG charging that the allocation has resulted in loss to the Government to the extent of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore, is erroneous.

What has prompted the Minister to make such a statement, trying to defend the indefensible? The various enquiries, the documents confiscated by the Income Tax, CBI and other agencies, the various media reports – all have pointed the accusing finger towards this biggest scam ever happened in India. The Parliament has been stalled for 23 days, the entire period of the winter session, on the demand of the opposition demand for a JPC enquiry in the matter. The Communications Minister, A.Raja, was compelled to resign on the allegation and also comment by the Supreme Court. Still, Kapil Sibal wants to justify whatever has happened.

The indications are clear. This is not a decision of the Communication Minister alone. It has got further connections, which if enquired will put the entire government in the dock. That seems to be the reason for the unjustifiable justification of the scam.

But the people will not be satisfied till the full truth is out. The Government should allow a JPC enquiry for the same.

SNATTA has started attacking BSNLEU in a very malicious and vicious way. This can be well understood since it has become desperate after leaving the BSNLEU. Earlier they were having seats in the National/circle/local councils and were able to discuss all issues along with BSNLEU. Now that chance is lost since, they very well know that their new alliance, NFTE, is not going to win, but will face utter defeat as in the last three verification. SNATTA is also under compulsion to attack BSNLEU to justify its unjustified exit from the United Forum. For more details see BSNLEU website: www.bsnleuchq.com

The organising tour of Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, President, BSNLEU and Convener, United Forum at Panipat and Ambala on 6th January 2011 has made onr thing clear, that BSNLEU is going win there with a very good margin, especially after NFTBE has joined the United Forum

Along with Coms. N.D.Ram, Financial Secretary, SEWA BSNL, S.S.Tomar, Circle Secretary, NTR, BSNLMS (BTEF). Com. Namboodiri addressed well attended meetings at Panipat and Ambala. Com.Naresh Kumar, President and MS. Kadian Circle Secretary, BSNLEU, Haryana Circle were present  and organised the meetings.

At Panipat more than 150 comrades were present. Com.Namboodiri, in his speech elaborated the settlements made by BSNLEU during the last two years. He mentioned about the agitations organised by the United Forum and Joint Forum as also the struggles organised under the BSNLEU alone. He called upon the workers to be prepared for further struggles ro save and improve BSNL.

The meeting at Ambala was attended by more than 500 comrades. Leaders of NFTBE were also present.  All the speskers focussed on the good achievements made by BSNLEU in the last two years. The unanimousely decided to work effectively for the success of BSNLEU and UnitedForum