People's DemocracySwadesh Dev Roye
AN extended session of the Committee of Central Public Sector Trade Unions (CPSTU) was held at the auditorium of the HAL township, Hyderabad on February 17-18, 2008. Around 450 delegates representing trade unions functioning in central public sector undertakings from all over the country attended the session. Major sectors represented in the CPSTU session included Coal, Electricity, Steel, Oil & Gas, Telecom, Electronics, Defence Production, Fertilizer, Indian Airlines, Airports Authority, Port & Docks.
The deliberations of the session took place on the basis of a detailed Background Note formally placed in the session with the introductory speech of CITU president M K Pandhe followed by the leaders of the other core constituents of CPSTU. A presidium consisting of Swadesh Dev Roye (CITU), V S Bose (AITUC), Sudarshan Rao (HMS), D Ananthapadmanabha, JAF, Bangalore, V Prabhakar, Co-ordination Committee of PSU Unions, Hyderabad conducted the CPSTU session.
A Historic Session
A major highlight of the session was that for the first time during the 23 years of existence of the CPSTU, representatives from contractor workers' trade unions in central public sector also actively participated in this session of the CPSTU and took part in the deliberations. The immense importance of this development has been noted in the background paper thus: "This session being attended for the first time by the representatives of both regular workers and contract workers together has become a historic one in raising voice and taking firm resolve to fight for the just demands for the entire public sector workforce and also for defending the public sector from the onslaught of ruling classes."
The understanding of the CPSTU on this burning issue of contract workers in central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) has been captured in the background paper presented in the immediate last meeting held at Nashik thus: "The spate of contractorisation has assumed a distinctly disastrous dimension in the post liberalisation period. Number of regular workers is declining every day owing to stoppage of fresh recruitment of regular workers along with periodical separation, both normal and pre-mature. As a result, the employment profile in most of the public sector units have undergone a drastic change with the contract workforce in many PSUs being double the number of permanent workers. From operational importance point of consideration, the contract workers in important industries including in the CPSUs are increasingly occupying very pivotal position. To that extent the regular workers are losing their weight to mount effective pressure in the process of collective bargaining. In some CPSUs the percentage of contract workers is even more than that of regular workers. Such a situation has posed a serious threat to the striking and bargaining capacity of the trade unions since contract"
AttackS Against Public Sector
On the continued onslaught of the government of the day in dismantling public sector through various policy measures, the background paper has noted: "In the name of joint venture, private sector is being given favoured access to the investible surplus fund of CPSUs. Thus NTPC is making another joint venture with Bharat Forge, a private forging company to manufacture power plant equipment as a competitor to BHEL, another Navratna CPSU. The majority shares of 51 per cent are proposed to be with Bharat Forge, which is therefore being sponsored both financially & commercially by one CPSU like NTPC to cut to size another CPSU. Similar joint ventures are being formed in petroleum sector by CPSUs like ONGC, IOC, BPCL & HPCL with their respective private sector business rivals.
In the strategic sensitive sector like Defence, private sector industries are being given status of "Raksha Utpadan Ratna (RUR) in order to enable them to get substantial orders from ordnance factories, DRDO and Defence CPSUs. Technological collaboration of domestic private sector companies with defence MNCs, specially from USA and Israel, are being encouraged at the cost of self reliance in defence production and R&D. The indigenous defence production is not only being weakened, but in the process national security is also being endangered. Disinvestment of defence CPSUs like the infamous "Kelkar Committee" recommended HAL, BEL etc and corporatisation of Ordnance Factories etc formed during NDA regime, which could not be implemented fully by UPA Government because of the opposition from the trade unions but is still being pursued vigorously by the government through back door manoeuvrings.
The government has announced higher foreign investment ceilings in several sectors like civil aviation, oil refining and commodity exchanges. It has also eased FDI rules for industries like construction. Public sector companies have been allowed to offer up to 49 per cent stake to international players as against the present 23 per cent. In aviation, while maintaining the 49 per cent FDI limit in domestic airlines, it has allowed foreign investors to hold up to 74 per cent stake in non-scheduled, chartered and cargo airlines that do not have any participation by foreign airlines. The 64 per cent cap is intended for ground handling services as well. However 100 per cent FDI will be permitted for maintenance, repair and overhaul service providers as well as flying and technical training institutes. FDI in the mining of titanium has been allowed up to 100 per cent. "
Unprecedented in the history of CPSTU, a record number of around 100 delegates participated in the deliberation of the session. A spectacular dimension of the deliberation has been that without any exception each and every speaker emphatically supported the demands of the contract workers and welcomed the participation of contractor workers in the CPSTU session. The understanding of the CPSTU was thus vividly vindicated in the speeches of the delegates. The Hyderabad session of the CPSTU, has thus, opened a new horizon for movement of public sector workers in the country. It is an effective beginning step in addressing a challenging task of uniting the regular and contract workers in the CPSUs. The declaration adopted in the session has taken note of this aspect with due importance.
