May Day 2010
Unite for a Living Wage, Struggle for Democratic Rights
RESIST IMPERIALIST GLOBALISATION
The country is in the grip of severe inflation. The price of essential goods has increased immensely. This inflation is a consequence of the way capital has dealt with the crisis that has affected people across the world. The global crisis has destroyed the jobs and livelihoods of working people. Now, inflation is reducing the value of our work. The burden is unequal and is more on the shoulders of the oppressed and the discriminated people. The poor are being pushed to destitution. There is no retreat. The only way forward is the resistance and struggle of the working class of the world.
Big capital has been given huge concessions in terms of tax breaks and various sops for industry, more so in SEZ’s, all in the name of economic growth. This has emboldened corporate India to launch a systematic attack on the small welfare measures conceded by the government. It has come down hard on the NREGA and the Food Security Bill. With a weakened Left, the UPA government is under pressure from the dominant right, both in the Congress and the Parliament, to ‘reduce government spending’. The drive to remove regulations on capital and reduce the legal rights of workers is gaining momentum – be it the drive to expand indiscriminately mining activities without any concern for the rights of local people; or the increasing contractualisation of work in all areas of employment, including low-paid employment in the government; or allowing the growth of contract farming or industry in rural areas; the direction is becoming clearer and strong. We call for an end of budgetary subsidies to capital and reduction on military expenditure. Stop price rise.
LIVING WAGE FOR ALL
Minimum wage is today a destitution wage. It has made a mockery of our constitutional commitment to a minimum living wage. Poverty levels are among the worst in the sub-continent with government estimates placing 70% of the population as surviving at below Rs.20 per day per capita. We call for a Living Wage to build the lives of working families. This is the basis for development of nations and peoples’.
IMPLEMENT 8 HOURS WORK DAY AND PROVIDE REST IN A WORK DAY
The last decade has seen capital violate all internationally accepted norms, including that of the 8 hour working day. Workers in developing countries have really borne the brunt of this and are made to work for 10-12 hours a day without any overtime wage. We should remember the bitter struggles in the USA in 1886 for the 8-hour working day. The 8-hour day remains till today the standard for a fair measure of work. Today in India, even the 8-hour work day is no more an accepted norm. One in every twenty workers, even in the organised sector, work for over 8 hours. The workers covered by union agreements are also forced to work more intensely without adequate breaks or rest. The work intensity slowly destroys the health of the workers and saps their lives. We call for a stop to forced overtime and 12 hour shifts. We also call for imprisonment of violators and cancellations of factory licences for non-compliance.
SOCIAL SECURITY FOR ALL
Social security still remains an empty promise for most workers. Unorganized workers have been the worst hit by the global crisis. NTUI calls for Universal Social Security provided through budgetary provisions. The National Minimum Social Security Benefit should be indexed to the National Minimum Wage. We call for a Living Wage and Social Security to ensure dignity of labour and respect for working life.
END TO ALL DRACONIAN ANTI-PEOPLE LAWS
Acts like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kashmir and the north-eastern states, or the Chattisgarh Special Powers Act are all aimed at maintaining a repressive state. In the name of fighting the ‘naxalite menace’, the government has equated all protests with terrorism and anti-state activity. This has spread to cover even trade union struggles for democracy at the workplace and legitimate and peaceful Right to Democratic Dissent. The predatory policies of the Government are forcing people to fight back. In this situation, spontaneous protests and organized resistance have been happening across the country. The protests have been against draconian government measures that seek to curb all democratic rights of common people.
The fascist forces are still out to divide the country on lines of religion, caste, language and ethnicity. Mumbai has been a recent witness of this chauvinism. Such chauvinism seeks to deny the workers their right to work with freedom and mobility in the country and destroys the unity of the working class. The support for such divisive forces among common people is fact on the decline. We hail this maturity and confidence of the working people.
FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN WORKERS
In this centenary year of 8 March International Women’s Day let us remember that working class unity and strength can not be realized till women are brought in much larger numbers within the trade union movement. It is essential to give priority to organising the women workers and their leadership in all its programmes and activities. We demand equal wages for equal work, zero tolerance to violence against women and recognition of women’s unpaid and unaccounted for work
On this May-day NTUI calls all progressive unions in committing to a united, militant working class struggle against the offensive of capital and the anti-labour policies of the government and come together to safeguard democratic rights. We call on all other mass organizations and peoples’ movements opposed to imperialist globalisation to join this struggle of the working people.