People's Democracy

Major Victory For CITU Unions In NTPC Secret Ballot

SECRET Ballot took place in three different major NTPC  power generation stations – Singrauli Super Thermal Power Station, Rihand Super Thermal Power Project and Unchahar Thermal Power Station.  All these projects are located in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Out of the three projects CITU won in two and lost in one with very small margin. The details of the  results are as under:

It may be mentioned that with the present victory, CITU has climbed to No.1 position with regard to number of elected unions with each of the central trade unions in the National Bipartite Committee (NBC) of NTPC.  The present position is CITU – 5 elected unions, BMS – 3 elected unions, INTUC – 1 elected union and AITUC – nil.  Incidentally it may be mentioned that secret ballot is not taking place in two major projects – Korba and Vindhyachal and Corporate Office of NTPC due to complication arising out of interpretation of law. We have gone to the court of law.Whenever secret ballot will take place in these three locations, the position of CITU shall definitely be further strengthened.

It may be worth mentioning that in Singraul project of NTPC, there are more than 350 workers who are residents of the surrounding villages. The independent union which has won the election is called the ‘local union’ which mainly functions among the local workers noted above. Thus while the overwhelming majority of the general workers have voted for the CITU union, the local workers have voted en-masse for the ‘local union’. We have not yet succeeded in expanding our activities among the local people.