“Mysuru All India Conference takes historic decision to strengthen working class unity!
The Mysuru All India Conference has taken a historic decision to strengthen working class unity. This is the time when greater unity has to be built to settle the wage revision, pension revision and to safeguard BSNL from the attacks of the government. Revival of BSNL is our historic task. Without unity, we cannot achieve all these. This is not the time to quarrel among us on petty issues. This is not the time to test who is bigger and who is smaller. Particularly, the unity of the two recognised unions- BSNLEU and NFTE- is the need of the hour. The Mysuru All India Conference deeply deliberated this. Finally, the Conference decided to get the Recognition Rule modified, to strengthen unity. As per the Non- Executives’ Recognition Rules, if the first union gets 50% votes or more, than the second union will not get recognition. The Mysuru All India Conference has unanimously passed a resolution, demanding that this clause should be removed. We are hopeful that this will pave the way for closer coordination and understanding between the BSNLEU and NFTE- the two major trade unions of BSNL.” (courtesy: bsnleu.in)

It is also to be remembered that BSNLEU, the lone recognised union in BSNL in the last membership verification, demanded the government to recognise the second largest union in BSNL and thus the second union, NFTE got recognition. The present decision takes one more step in this direction. Congratulations to BSNLEU!

At this stage when further unity is being brought, let us not forget the past also. In the first membership verification in 2002, NFTE got about 1,05,000 votes and got recognition while BSNLEU got about 90,000 and became the second union. BSNLEU demanded that the BSNL management should recognise two unions in BSNL as was done in DOT ie. NFTE and FNTO. The BSNL Management was prepared for the same, but Com.O.P.Gupta, SG NFTE, threatened the the management with approaching court as also agitational programmes. Hence, the the management did not grant recognition to BSNLEU. In the next verification, BSNLEU became the sole recognised union, and continued as such till the last membership verification when BSNLEU itself demanded for the recognition of the II Union which made NFTE eligible for recognition. Now going one further step BSNLEU has demanded that even if the first union gets more than 50%, the second union should be recognised. This is an unparalleled decision and certainly will reduce the bitterness in the membership campaign and also go a long way in united struggle for BSNL and its workers.