General Strike on 20 August 2008

BUILD RESISTANCE

JOIN GENERAL STRIKE on 20 AUGUST 2008

Inflation has long crossed the double digit mark and the UPA Government has not only exhausted its measures at controlling it but has also come out in the open to show that controlling the price spiral that affects the working class the most is nowhere on their radar screen. The global offensive of capital has created the present agrarian crisis by restructuring agriculture globally to serve the profit motives of large Corporates thereby creating this immense global shortage of food. With the emerging shift in the global geo-political power balance, recovery can now only happen with a restructuring of economies. The orientation of export led growth is on the verge of collapse, without having contributed to growth in employment, increase in real wages or even visible net benefits to economies but it has provided the cover for bringing in flexibility of labour standards and erosion of labour rights. As the offensive of capital grows against working people as a last resort to amass profits, the resistance needs to be much stronger and bolder.

We call upon all unions to unite and local action committees built to mobilise working people in large numbers in state capitals, urban centres and major industrial centres to take the strike beyond the usual select states and centres.

NTUI endorses the following 6-point Charter of Demands raised at the National Convention of Workers:

  1. Take urgent steps to contain price-rise through (a) universalising the public distribution system throughout the country to cater all essential commodities at controlled price through PDS, (b) ban on futures and forward trading in all essential commodities, © reduction of tax in petrol and diesel, (d) stringent action against hoarding and black marketing
  2. Strict implementation of all labour laws particularly in respect of minimum wages, working hours, social security and safety and stringent action against all cases of violations; stop contractorisation and outsourcing.
  3. Scope of the Unorganised Sector Workers Social Security Bill pending in Parliament should be expanded to cover all unorganised sector workers irrespective of BPL or APL category to ensure a national minimum social security benefit for them as per unanimous recommendation of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour with Central Govt. Funding.
  4. Farmers Loan Waiver Scheme to be extended to loans from private moneylenders; nationalized banks to extend easy credit to peasants at lower interest rate.
  5. Lift ban on recruitment in Govt. services; remove the negative and discriminatory features in the recommendations of 6th Pay Commission and finalise the same for implementation in consultation with the employees’ organizations; expedite regularization and grant of pension to gramin daksevaks, contingent and work- charged employees; scrap the New Pension Scheme and the PFRDA Bill.
  6. Expedite wage negotiation for the employees of Central PSUs including the contract workers with out any conditionalities.

While endorsing these demands it is absolutely necessary for us to clearly articulate the response of the working class in concrete terms.
Hence the NTUI demands:

  • The basic right of every worker to an 8-hour work-day: The 8-hour work-day defines the limits of decent working standards and should form the measure of the work required to be done by any worker in any sector or industry.
  • A need based Minimum Wage for all workers in urban and rural sectors: According to the 15th Indian Labour Conference, the Need Based Minimum Wage for an urban worker should be around Rs.200 per day and for semi-urban and rural workers around Rs.150 per day. The statutory minimum wage is far below this and even this is a distant dream for most workers.
  • Equal wage for equal work and No wage lower than Regular wages: The Contract Labour Act was founded on the premise of progressive realisation of the universality of equality through abolition of contract employment. Today, most contract workers are constrained under conditions of forced labour and job insecurity to work far beyond the 8-hour day at wages less than the statutory Minimum Wage. In industries employing both tenured and contract workers for the same work, the contract workers are paid about a third or even a fourth the wage of the tenured workers. This is violation to cardinal rights of citizens provided for in this country’s constitution. Also, in most employment, women workers are paid much lower than men thereby grossly violating the Payment of Wages Act.
  • Universal Social Security: The demand for a social security provision that covers the needs of all workers and their families is central to meet a basic standard of living. We demand an immediate legislation that provides for a national minimum social security that is provided by the state and is not contingent on its ability to pay.
  • Democracy at Workplace: All relations of power between labour and capital should be mediated on democratic principles. The foundations of democracy can only be secured and sustained when such democratic relations are institutionalised in every workplace and workers have rights, access and capacity to build unions and democratise the industrial relationships. The limited provision of Section 9A of the ID Act that provides for prior notice of change in conditions of service is now under attack.
  • Repeal of the SEZ Act, 2005: The SEZ Act creates enclaves that enjoy immunity from labour and many other laws. Such an Act grossly violates the basic human and labour rights of all those who seek employment in industries located in these zones.
  • Proper implementation of NREGA: As the NREGA is legally enforceable and demand driven it has opened up a new area of conflict that is more often than not taking a violent turn. The landed agricultural lobby is pressuring the government to change the law in order to plug the rural wages. The government by a circular has already diluted the law by increasing the working hours. We demand an immediate repeal of this circular.
  • No upper limit set for bonus: All forms of wage restraint have been thrown asunder at the managerial level in the private sector which has now also been articulated for employees in the government sector. In view of this, placing a restraint on the wages of workers is extremely unjust. It institutionalises a misconception that the managerial staff contributes more to value addition in the economy than the working class while the reverse is actually the case. Hence there should be no sealing.
  • A Stop to the opening up of the Employees’ Provident Fund to private players
  • A stop to the Dilution of laws related to closure, retrenchment and lockout
  • No dilution of labour laws by state governments and provision for parliamentary scrutiny for effective implementation of labour laws in States.
  • Compulsory recognition of unions
  • No to further Privatisation of Public Sector: Any restructuring of the Public Sector should be accompanied by public debate with employees and those who receive services from these utilities.

We call upon all sections of the working class to rise to the occasion to build resistance based on solidarity and strength to ensure the success of the working class.

Unity • Democracy • Militancy

Alliances