Chhattisgarh
Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh
Contract Workers persist their struggle in Chhattisgarh
30 May 2011 In the early hours of 19 May, Bhagwati Sahu, an elected member of the Janpad Panchayat of Baloda Bazar and organizer of the Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS) representing contract labour in the Holcim-Ambuja plant at Rawaan, was arrested on a patently false FIR filed by Security Officer Nandlal Choubey accusing him of “dacoity” of Rs. 3500 and a Nokia Mobile. Hand in glove with the company, the local police opposed bail calling him a “habitual offender”, “dangerous” and a “threat to law and order”. A long list of cases, all related to trade union agitations was submitted in support of this contention. Bhagwati has been denied bail despite the fact that there are numerous witnesses that he was not at the spot of the incident. Lakhan Sahu, the young and dynamic Organising Secretary of the PCSS, is another co-accused in the case, though he was at Raipur attending the funeral of a relative. There are 6 other union activists named in this obvious attempt at union-busting through malicious prosecution.
A complaint that this is an unfair labour practice to suppress the movement of contract labour, and particularly the dispute regarding reinstatement of 80 workmen illegally dismissed which was on the verge of resolution, made to the Labour Secretary, Government of India by NTUI – a national federation to which the PCSS is affiliated – has so far not got any response from the State labour department.
On 26 May around 250 contract workers reached Raipur to meet the Labour Ministry and Labour Secretary to demand the implementation of the High Court order directing regularization, and the withdrawal of the false cases against their union leaders. Both the Minister and Secretary avoided meeting the workers though their subordinates made “assurances” of looking into the workers’ grievances.
The PCSS has received a communication from the international trade union federations campaigning in its support, namely – the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), International Chemical, Engineering and Mineworkers Federation (ICEM)and the Swiss Trade Union Federation UNIA – these federations are planning to send a delegation to India to investigate into the grievances of the contract labour.
On 27 June, the Writ Appeal filed by Holcim-ACC before a Division Bench of the Chhattisgarh High Court, against the order of the Single Judge will come up for hearing. The PCSS has filed an application challenging the maintainablility of this Writ Appeal since ordinarily a judgment passed under Article 227 of the Constitution would be challengable only by a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court. The PCSS has also opposed the application for interim relief which is to be argued on that day.
More News on Holcim Struggle
http://ntui.org.in/ntui-news/item/demonstration-in-support-of-chhattisgarh-workers/
http://ntui.org.in/ntui-news/item/contract-workers-strike-continues-in-chhattisgarh/
http://ntui.org.in/ntui-news/item/indefinite-strike-by-pragatisheel-cement-shramik-sangh/