The Third General Council of the New Trade Union Initiative was held on 7 – 8 January 2012 in Kolkata. The General Council began in an atmosphere of enthusiasm and militancy with over seven and a half thousand members of affiliates from the state of West Bengal marching through central Kolkata along with over 600 delegates come from across the country to reach the public meeting at the Esplanade demanding minimum wages for all workers, progressive elimination of contract work, universal social security, equal wages for equal work and recognition of all forms of work and in defence of trade union and other democratic rights.
Comrades Sailen Bhattacharya (ECL Shramik Union) and Pradeep Roy (All West Bengal Sales Representatives Union, AWBSRU) joined the Chairperson of the GC Reception Committee, eminent poet, Tarun Sanyal in welcoming the delegates to the General Council. Comrade Santosh Rana along with the NTUI state leadership – Comrades Ashis Kusum Ghosh of AWBSRU, Somnath Ghosh of Hosiery Workers Union and Prithwish Bose of Shramajeevi Samanvyay Committee addressed the public meeting. Comrades V Chandra , Vice-President NTUI and General Secretary, Koyla Udyog Kamgar Sangathana called for a women’s forum in the NTUI and Anuradha Talwar, Secretary NTUI demanding a broad unity of trade unions.
The NTUI President, Com. D Thankappan addressing the public meeting called for the “… unity of the working class and the trade unions representing them”. “…The present unity of central trade unions in the left with those in the right of the political spectrum is a result of the reduced strength of trade unions”, he said. Com Thankappan called for “organising in new areas, regions, sectors … for organising the large number of women employed in informal employments who still remain outside the purview of most trade unions”. This new organising effort can only be “successful with a sustained struggle for minimum wages, for equal wages for equal work, for universal social security.
Comrade Santosh Rana very lucidly analysed the present situation of crisis and how “… it has affected workers not just at their workplace but also socially”. Rebuilding the left, he said, will come through a struggle for the social wage by launching a struggle for “universal right to health”.
Concluding the public meeting, the NTUI General Secretary, Com. Ashim Roy recalled that in the last two years since the Second General Assembly in Mumbai, “… NTUI has not only grown significantly, affiliates of the NTUI has been at the forefront of militant struggles across the country, from struggles of government employees in Kashmir for their democratic rights, to the struggles of contract workers in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, to struggles for forest rights and other natural resources in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, to struggle for rights of women workers in garment industry, honorary work, rural work, domestic work, sex work to struggles of construction workers across the country for implementation of the hard won social security benefits, to struggles for implementation of the MGNREGA across the country which has become a key source of sustenance for most rural workers.”
Speaking on the growing working class struggles across the world, Comrade Roy called for “strengthening the struggle against imperialist globalisation.
The third General Council (GC) saw the participation of 664 delegates and observers from over 150 unions from 19 states. The Council was inaugurated by Com. D. Thankappan with the hoisting of the NTUI flag. Com. Pradeep Roy, Co-Convenor of the West Bengal State Committee, welcomed all delegates to the GC. In constituting the General Council, Com. Gautam Mody, Secretary, said that “its a matter of immense pride that a third of the delegates were women …this is clearly indicative of the expansion of NTUI in new areas of work while continuing to grow in engineering and electronics and amongst Government employees, including honorary workers, plantation workers, agriculture workers, construction workers, mining workers, and workers fighting the most militant struggles against multinationals like the Areva, DHL, Holcim and Siemens.”
The AITUC (Thakur Bhattacharya), AICCTU (Dibakar Bhattacharya), AIUTUC (Mihir Bandopadhyay) and the ICL (Subhash Bose) joined the inaugural session to extend their fraternal greetings and solidarity of their organisations to the NTUI. Fraternal greetings were also received from across the world. From Asia, solidarity messages were received from the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), the Bangladesh Trade Union Centre, the National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan, the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) from Japan, and the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) of the Philippines. Solidarity letters from the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) of France, and its affiliated metal workers union, the FTM–CGT from the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL) and its affiliated metal workers union FIOM–CGIL, from the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) of Brazil, the AFL–CIO, the Teamsters and the militant independent trade union United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) from the Australian Manufacturing Worker’s Union (AMWU). Recognising NTUI’s struggle, since its inception, to protect workers’ rights both in the organized and unorganized sector, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) extended warm greetings and solidarity and the hope “that the meeting will come out with effective solutions to meet the growing challenges and advance the cause of workers”. The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) extended solidarity and support on behalf of its 82 million affiliates “for the right to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining and the struggle of the workers against imperialist globalization”.
… Ritualistic or token unity of trade unions and struggles based on them will not work. . … We have to build our strength and create a situation in which governments cannot make policy decisions without consulting the trade unions.” D. Thankappan, President, NTUI, opening remarks, 7 January 2012, Kolkata
“…against capital and imperialism… for minimum wage, universal social security, equal wage for equal work, for trade unions rights” defined the work of the two day GC in Kolkata. Laying out the importance of holding the GC in the city of Kolkata that lies deeply absorbed today in the political debate on ‘change’, Com. D Thankappan laid out the possibilities that this change has offered for the NTUI. The change in government from a left front government of over three decades has opened up new possibilities of organising alongwith providing a space for building broad based left alliances in the state as a credible alternative.
In the delegate session, placing the Secretariat Report before the GC, Com. Ashim Roy, highlighted the struggles in new areas of organising. From focussing on organising women workers to breaking new grounds in organising forest workers and those dependent on other natural resources, to organising workers along issues of social equality. The understanding of NTUI that the organising of contract workers would tilt the balance of power in the changed employment scenario has formed the basis for militant struggles in Bokaro Steel, in Holcim in Chhatisgarh, in Munjal in Gujarat. Com. Roy said “ …the Contract Labour Forum has paved the way for building a broad alliance with other unions irrespective of their affiliation”. Building industrial federations is an urgent need. “Our affiliates especially in the MNCs have shown a new way forward towards achieving the core principle of a single union in a single industry”, he added. “The struggle for democracy”, Com Roy said, “…was simultaneously an intellectual, a political, and a social battle. The popular support against the movement against corruption was indicative of the disproportionate impact of corruption on working people”.
Stressing on the need for strengthening state councils, the General Secretary, rendering the Punjab experience, was critical of the lack of democracy at the state level and yet congratulated the NTUI Punjab State Council at its capacity to rise above the organisational crisis and consolidate their base and expand rapidly since then with democracy at the core of their reorganisation.
The battle for increase in the wage share, he argued, has to reach beyond local struggles. This battle needs to be strengthened through the building of relations with militant trade unions of the world. The first step towards this, needs to begin within the region of South Asia, with a common historical legacy.
Presenting the accounts for 2010 and 2011, the NTUI Treasurer, Com. Subbu, emphasised the need to grow the NTUI financial resources in order to advance the self organising capacity of the working class.
In response to the Secretariat Report, 43 speakers from the 13 States and different sectors addressed the plenary sharing the experiences of their struggles for minimum wages in both rural employments as well as in the highest end of manufacturing and services as contract workers. At the core of these are the struggles led by Jharkhand Krantikari Mazdoor Union for contract workers in Bokaro Steel, in UCIL; of All West Bengal Sales Representative Union for sales workers in West Bengal; of Pen Thozhilargal Sangam, Navjeeva Samity and Disha Grihakarmi Samanvyay Committee for domestic workers in the cities of Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata respectively; of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samiti, Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan, Asom Majoori Sramik Union, Paschim Banga Cha bagan Shramik Karmachari Union, new unions from Orissa, Bihar for rural workers not just in agriculture but in tea plantations in West Bengal and Assam, in works under NREGA. Affiliates organising women ‘honorary workers’ from Punjab and Maharashtra shared their struggles for recognition as government employees providing critical social services as well as for social security benefits such as maternity benefits, pension. Com. Bharti Sharma stressed the importance of recognising the contribution of women’s organisations in organising informal workers, especially women workers and working in close tandem with them.
The other primary struggle that affiliates of NTUI have consistently waged is that for regularisation of contract workers along with raising the demand for equal wage for equal work for contract workers in all employments. Important battles have been won on rights of contract workers by Chemical Mazdoor Panchayat in Gujarat, JKMU in Jharkhand, among electricity workers in Nagpur by the Rozandari Mazdoor Sena, PHE Supply Employees Union in West Bengal, Garment and Fashion Workers Union in Chennai, and by several affiliates in the engineering industry in Pune. Given the rapid spread and militant struggles led by NTUI affiliates, the backlash from employers and government has also been very severe. The Nirman Mazdoor Shakti Sangathan raised the important issue of the need for trade unions to focus on occupational health and safety of workers, primarily in the informal sector. The struggle of the construction workers affected by silicosis is still on despite the orders of the National Human Rights Commission. While on one hand rural workers have been under attack from local political leadership and government as in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and on the other, employers in formal employments have violated all trade union rights with impunity. The NTUI affiliates that organise sex workers, Binodini Shramik Union from West Bengal and the Karnataka Sex Workers Unions narrated their struggle for decriminalisation of their work as well as their continuing struggle at the state and national level for recognition as workers and hence for their right to form trade unions. Com. Roma speaking for the Grameen Mazdoor Union organising rural workers in forest areas of UP and Uttarkhand, spoke of the initiative taken by the women in these areas in the union’s effort to implement the forest rights act and build community cooperatives for the minor forest produce. The women have emerged as powerful leaders of this struggle and that has strengthened the base of the organisation. Com. Ranso S Patil from the Sakhar Kamgar Union Kolhapur representing sugar mill cooperative workers called for a national level campaign for restructuring the sugar cooperatives as a starting point for building the cooperatives as essential for advancing the working class movement.
One organisational question that was repeatedly raised by the affiliates was of the nature of the organisation – whether NTUI is political, apolitical, party political or truly representative of multiple political tendencies.
The question about the nature of NTUI, raised initially by Com. Swapan Ganguly of PBKMS and reiterated by many others including Com Padam of the Workers Unity Trade Union organising garment workers in Gurgaon, was answered in great detail by the General Secretary in his reply to affiliate responses at the end of the first day. Com Roy said that NTUI’s position is very clear – NTUI is a political organisation of working class but not controlled by any one political party or tendency. He reiterated that the “…NTUI believes that many political tendencies can coexist in a trade union – the challenge is to translate these different political ideas towards evolving a democratic consensus”.
Com Roy also stressed on the need to “… integrate the Muslim community in our organising strategy with a clear position on communalism in all forms”. In order to build on this there is a need to identify sectors for instance among rag pickers, handicrafts, or chikan workers. Com Roy explained that our position on Kashmir is that there must be a political solution to Kashmir, as the political question is not even allowed to be discussed. The NTUI leadership, in the year 2012, said the General Secretary, wants to focus on strengthening state level organizations. The issue that emerged on nuclear energy continues to be debated within the organisation. In conclusion, Com Roy noted that the debate on democratic industrialization has been started in the NTUI.
The performances by the Komal Gandhar and the Alternative Living Theatre groups at the end of day one of the General Council showed that the progressive cultural tradition of Bengal that has historically been integral to the trade union movement.
Komal Gandhar, the cultural troupe of the Binodini Shramik Union – a trade union representing over fifty thousand sex workers in Bengal, formed in 1997 to provide sex workers a ‘voice’ to negotiate with mainstream society, performed a dance recital for the delegates bringing demands of sex workers into the public arena and challenging dominant stereotypic representations of sex work and sex workers.
Discarding the monotonous grammatical acting, the Alternative Living Theatre troupe’s experiment of a new aesthetic of theatre with physicality as a mean of communication provided a performing artists’ interpretation of the present situation of the working class. Violent in momentum their dramatic composition provided a glaring critique of the present economic situation and its impact on common people, especially the poor and the downtrodden of urban society.
In moving the first resolution on the Crisis of Imperialist Globalisation and Trade Union Movement in the morning of 8 January, Secretary of NTUI, Com N Vasudevan raised the question of how the trade union movement has not been able to capture the imagination of the working people in the country which got mobilised by the movement around Anna Hazare. This is reflective of the crisis in Indian democracy. People’s resistance movements across the world reflects the depth and the expanse of the crisis. Com M Rajan, while seconding it highlighted the disparities and the inequities created by capital over the years and now accentuated by the global crisis. The present phase of imperialist globalisation, imposed through financialisation and restructuring of production, became possible with the delinking of the dollar from gold and the breakdown of the Soviet bloc. These forced open the economies of developing countries and weakened the power of nation states to impose capital controls. As a result, capital acquired the capacity to both flow to low wage locations as well as to de-value labour. This phase is coming to an end with a crisis of the dollar itself. In addition the collapse of the credit cycle has impacted even the Chinese economy and growth in China, India and other developing countries has slowed down. This fall in the growth in the developing countries has fore grounded the excess productive capacity that has arisen and cannot be serviced within the capitalist system, and this will open up various forms of protectionist measures as countries respond to the situation, raising the possibility of a trade war. The coming time will be a phase of contention and struggle between two broad trends. One, of governments bending to the needs of finance capital, a process that works best within a monetarist ideology. The other, of peoples’ power asserting itself to reverse this financialisation process. This contention will emerge at many levels and will force a reversal of this financialisation process, beginning with the imperialist determined monetary framework. The labour movement has to pose an alternative to imperialist globalisation both at the international and domestic levels. It has to struggle for a framework of development within which technological upgradation and wage rise are allowed simultaneously through institutional mechanisms. This will require unionisation and collective bargaining processes to be firmly established at both firm and industrial / sectoral level, which can only lead to an equitable sharing of rises in productivity in the real economy and provide grounds for expansion of the economy. The economic crisis is precipitating a political crisis. In a way people are moving away from dominant political parties and the parliamentary system. The political crisis is also manifested with wider layers of society becoming actively involved in anti-government movements. The NTUI believes that we need to build unity for a wider social base for alternative political options. The NTUI calls for widening the economic struggle by drawing in all sections of the working people to force a shift in the balance of forces. A key task of the NTUI has to be also to translate this active participation of the working people into a union-building process.
While moving the second resolution: To build an incremental national struggle to win an indexed minimum wage and universal social security, in order to fight growing inequality and for advancing national development, Com Gautam Mody, Secretary, NTUI, reviewed the depth of the economic crisis globally and in India and called for a sustained struggle: for the stringent implementation of the NREGA and a coordinated militant struggle to win an inflation indexed NREGA wage based on recommendations of the 15th ILC and subsequent Supreme Court judgements in order to ensure that this is a step towards a national struggle for the stringent and rigorous implementation of an indexed minimum wage; for building the public distribution system, price controls for essential commodities, ensuring comprehensive food security, imposing export restrictions on food grains and food products, and introducing a stringent anti-trust regulation in manufactured goods and services to curb inflation; against all forms of wage discrimination and inequality, including discrimination against contract workers, women workers including honorary work; and fighting for equal pay for equal work, and lifting the upper ceiling under the Bonus Act; to win universal social security and in particular universal access to health, pension benefit and defending provident funds; to defend the right to freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, and putting an end to unfair labour practices. Com Mody also called for a united front to: advance the cooperative movement and defend the public sector to meet the needs of the working class, ensure self-reliant national development; fight corruption through a redressing of grievances and the enforcement of tax and corporate laws; further transparency in economic policy making and full disclosure by government; and demand for informed debate by legislature, of all economic actions and international treaties involving an impact in the lives of the working class and to build a national consensus on Democratic Industrialisation.
Seconding the economic resolution, Com Pradeep Roy spoke about the inherent contradictions of the capitalist system. The fact that capital is searching for new avenues to exploit wages has led to declining wages alongwith spiraling prices causing real wages falling.
The Third General Council deliberated upon the issue of women and work and resolved to build a specific campaign to address the issues of working women. In moving the third resolution, Com Anuradha Talwar, Secretary NTUI, stressed on the increasing feminisation of work, especially in the informal sector and non-standard work; gender discrimination in standard employments; along with policies to promote self-employment for women in order to keep them perpetually out of the ambit of labour laws and social security. She added that the majority of women members of NTUI today are in non-standard employments such as rural work including forest work, honorary work, domestic work, garbage collectors, sex work and also in sectors such as the garment industry, construction, plantations, hospital and municipal work. The overlapping issues that have emerged from among experiences of different affiliates are that of Recognition of Work; Discrimination at workplace; harsh work conditions and harassment, including sexual harassment. In light of this the NTUI resolves to: build a national campaign in 2012 to address working women’s issues beginning with 8 March mobilisation on: a Need-based Minimum Wage and Strict Enforcement of Minimum Wages; Equal Wage for Equal Work; Universal Social Security; Universal Food Security; A Safe and Secure Workplace; Ratify ILO Conventions related to women workers. Com. Talwar also stressed on the need to build a process of learning across regions and sectors for expanding and sustaining women’s leadership within NTUI and promote a culture against gender prejudice, domestic violence and sexual harassment in public spaces and within families and communities which focuses on building positive images of working women, and campaign for her dignity, self-respect and right to equality in her home, work-place and society. Organisationally, she stressed the need to form Regional and Sectoral Councils of NTUI affiliates having significant women workers leading up to the formation of NTUI Women’s Forum by the Third General Assembly.
Com Milind Ranade in seconding the resolution on women and work focussed on NTUI’s effort to expand its base in sectors primarily employing women. He said, “… we live in a country with women in positions of power on one hand and female foeticide on the other … hence its critical to bridge this gap in order build women’s power”.
A resolution to support and join the national call for action on 28 February 2012 given by all the central trade union organisations was moved by Com Ashim Roy and seconded by Com. M Subbu.
Finally, on behalf of all the delegates, Com D Thankappan thanked the West Bengal State Committee for organising the GC with great success. “All of us who constitute the leadership of NTUI are aware of the responsibility we have undertaken,” he said, “and we will march together to achieve this”.
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