NATIONAL OPEN MASS CONVENTION OF WORKERS
30th September 2019, Parliament Street, New Delhi
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Declaration
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The Modi-led BJP Government has completed its 100 days of
its second term in Office. And the country and her people are facing a
continuing economic slowdown, continuing job-losses, sky-rocketing
unemployment, widening and deepening impoverishment, faster decline in average
level of earnings, reckless privatisation and foreignisation of national
productive assets, destruction of indigenous manufacturing capabilities leading
to deindustrialization and abnormal rise of economic inequality in the society
to an obscene level- mocking at the slogan of “sabka sath sabka vikash”. Now, with a greater arrogance, the same
destructive economic policies targeting the democratic rights and livelihood of
the mass of the people are being pursued, setting in motion further worsening
of the situation. And more undemocratically than ever before – be
it the passing of Wage Code Bill, introduction of Code on Occupational Health,
Safety and Working Conditions, amendment to the RTI Act to cripple it,
amendment to Unlawful Activities Prevention Act to make it even more draconian
and vindictive, abrogation of Article 370 without consulting people of J &
K, in fact by gagging them, or rendering lakhs of people homeless/ stateless
through the NRC process. Now many BJP ruled states have been advocating for NRC
process to divide people on communal lines. This ongoing destructive process
must be combated for the unity of the people.
Each and every demand in the 12-point charter, of the
Central Trade Unions, independent federations and associations, supported by
the Joint National Forums of Peasants’ Organizations and highlighted through
various agitations with a continuity such as nation-wide strikes on 2nd
September 2015 2nd September 2016, the three day Maha-padav, on 9--11th
Nov, 2017 before the Parliament, the Nationwide strike by Scheme Workers
on 17th January 2018, Satyagrah and protests in almost all the states on
varying dates beginning from 23rd January to 23rd February 2018 and the
two-days’ strike on 8-9 January, 2019, adoption of ‘Workers’ Charter’ in
a joint national convention of trade unions on 5th March on the eve of the
general elections, have simply been ignored by the BJP Government. The budget
presented on 5th July was out and out pro-corporate and anti-common people. The
Government has announced its intention to introduce the remaining two Codes:
Code on Social Security and the Code on Industrial Relations, all together
aiming at imposing conditions of extreme exploitation of the working
people.
The Central Govt. not only failed to respond to the
genuine demands of the working people, but continued its brazen aggression
against the rights of workers, in the interest of their Corporate masters.
Bipartism and tripartism is given a go-by. Labour laws are being sought to be
overhauled in favour of the employers’ class. The BJP Govt. continues to
vindictively deprive the biggest Central Trade Union in the country, the Indian
National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) from all representations. No Indian
Labour Conference has been held after July, 2015. Pre-budget consultations have
become a sham.
Continuing phenomenon of alarmingly increasing
unemployment along with joblosses across the sectors, declining GDP rates,
increasing gap between the rich and the poor- all revealing a terminal slowdown
in the national economy are sought to be brushed under the carpet by
fudging figures. The phenomenon of closure and shut-down of automobile
industries and the ancillaries and the forecast of huge job-losses including in
the IT sector is adding fuel to the fire. Price-rise of essential commodities
including public transport, electricity, medicines etc is mounting miseries on
daily lives of the people in general, both in urban and rural areas, leading to
widening as well as deepening impoverishment. Drastic cut in Government
expenditure in social sector and various welfare schemes has made the
conditions of workers, particularly those in unorganized sector more
precarious.
The anti-labour authoritarian character of the Government
is all the more evident in their refusal to implement even the consensus
recommendations (in which the Government was also a party) of the successive
Indian Labour Conferences in respect of equal pay and benefits for equal work
for the contract workers, formulation of minimum wage and workers status for
the scheme workers viz., Anganwadi, Mid-Day-Meal and ASHA etc. have not been
implemented. Shockingly, the Labour Minister in the Modi Government
contradicted their own Committee’s recommendation on National Minimum Wage
(which in itself was in contravention of the recommendations of the 15th ILC)
by declaring a ridiculous figure of Rs.4628/-pm instead ! Replacing gradually
the workers by apprentices through NEEM, Fixed Term Employment etc, to grossly
alter the employment-relations towards slavery, amendments in Prevention of
Child Labour Act to allow employment of Child Labour, reduction in ESI
contributions and the move for pro-employer Amendment of EPF&MP Act,
including attempts to corporatize the EPFO and the ESIC-- all such anti-worker
steps are justified as incentives to employers for ease of doing their business
at the cost of workers. The Government stubbornly refuses to implement the
recent Judgments of the Supreme Court on issue of “equal wage and benefits for
same work” and on EPS, 1995 on contribution and calculation of pension on
actual pay and dearness allowance. On the other hand, the Government is
misusing the tax-payers money to incentivise the defaulting employers to
implement laws such as the Maternity Benefit Act and the EPF Act.
Another assault has come through the move for amendment of
the Trade Union Act 1926. The Government intends to change the definition of
the Central Trade Unions and their recognition procedure as per discretion of
the executive. The mala fide
intention is also to have Govt. interference into the functioning and internal
matters of trade unions.
Aggressive move for Privatization of even all the
strategic PSUs and government sector through different routes, including Defense
Production, Public Sector Banks and Insurance and also Railways, public road
transport, Ports, coal, power, steel, Petroleum etc through disinvestment,
strategic sale, outsourcing in favour of private sector, promoting 100 per cent
FDI in defense, railways, coal, and many vital, strategic sectors is increasing
day by day. Deliberate and vindictive weakening of Air India, BSNL, MTNL, not
allowing them level playing field, is being carried on with a destructive zeal
in total disregard to the human sufferings (no salaries for months together).
Plundering and looting the RBI reserves to contain budget deficit caused by tax
concessions to the Corporates is going to destabilize our economy further.
Defence Sector privatization move is actually designed to destroy the
indigenous Research initiatives and manufacturing capability, -demonstrating a
betrayal of national interests. The dubious game plan to outsource more than 50
per cent products including weapons and critical equipments, being produced by
the Ordinance establishments is finally followed up by move to corporatizing
the Ordnance Factories to facilitate complete privatization. Complete
privatization of the Railways, step by step, is going on. Operating private
trains on the existing tracks built by Railways and free access of railway
yards/workshops/sheds for private players is being permitted. Railway Printing
Presses are being closed. Railway production units are being corporatized to
facilitate privatization. Besides the railway employees becoming the
worst victims, mass of the common people will suffer more owing to inevitable
hike of railway fares and increase in freight charges owing to elimination of
subsidies in passenger fares and freight on essential commodities.
The Government has announced another round of merger of 10
Public Sector Banks into four despite negative impact of previous rounds of
merger, on banking services and employment. The reasons being offered for
merger are utterly false and deceptive. The lowering of interest rate on
deposits of common people will make them suffer, particularly the senior
citizens who depend on it in absence of any meaningful pension. The Insolvency
and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) procedure legitimizes the loot of the bank
money by the defaulting corporate besides neglecting the dues of the workers of
the bankrupt companies. In addition to all these the Government is entering
into free trade agreements with different countries and group of countries like
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which is detrimental to our
economic sovereignty.
The plight of the unorganized sector workers is even
worse, as they bear the brunt of the ongoing economic slowdown despite their
sizable contribution to GDP. Their number will swell as the workers lose
employment in formal sectors. Construction workers, beedi workers, street
vendors, domestic workers, loading/unloading workers had separate laws/welfare
boards. Instead of making them functional, they are sought to be abolished
through social security code exercise. The Government has made a cruel joke on
them promising first pension under PMSYPY of Rs.3000/-pm in the year 2039
! It is even forcing this so-called voluntary scheme on the scheme
workers. The government employees are demanding scrapping of NPS and
restoration of the old Pension Scheme. Sections such as home based
workers, waste recyclers, salt workers have no legal protection whatsoever.
But the workers have not accepted these measures meekly,
as shown by the surge of struggles all around. Workers of 41 ordnance factories
across the country went on total strike from 20th August for a month against
the corporatisation move forcing the Govt to step back for the time being just
after five days of the complete historic strike. The Government’s plan to
corporatize seven Railway production units was immediately responded to by
protest actions by the mass of the workers and their family members. The
bank merger news was denounced by nation-wide protest demonstrations of bank
employees and officers. Now, strike action is being planned in the banking
sector. The coal workers have staged a massive strike action on 24th
September, 2019 against allowing 100% FDI in coal sector. There have been
agitations in various CPSUs, including the core and strategic sectors
like Energy, Petroleum, Telecom, Metal, Steel, Mining, Machine Building, Road,
Air and Water Transport, Port & Dock against the government plans to
privatise them. The Convention extends full support to these struggles.
The Convention notes with dismay that this Government,
spinelessly surrendered to threat and pressure of their private corporate
masters, indigenous and foreign, by shamelessly withdrawing the measures for
making the shortfall in CSR spending by private corporates a criminal offence
and also withdrawing the surcharge on speculative profits of foreign portfolio
investors. Shri Modi had to placate them in his 15th August speech,
saying they are the “wealth creators” and cannot be viewed with suspicion. This
is over and above the budget announcement of the huge sop of reducing the
income tax rate by 5% for the 99.3% of the corporates. Now in the name of
addressing the economic slowdown, the Finance Minister has further announced
cutting back taxes on corporate from 30% to 22% whereas the workers and
employees have to pay the same 30% income tax. The stimulus package to
the tune of Rs.1.4 lakh crores, a bonanza to the corporates, does not increase
the purchasing power of the working people, does not create any jobs or even does
not ensure job security to the workers being retrenched every day, will further
aggravate the recession.
Now the BJP Government is facing a backlash from the
common people as the draconian measures of the newly passed Motor Vehicle Act
are put in practice. The federations of transport workers had repeatedly warned
against these measures during the last five years of BJP Government, through
various mass actions.
Now that the euphoria of a phenomenal win in the
elections is fading, jingoist claims on abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A
recede, NRC turns out to be a hoax, the people are waking up to the bitter
truth of a failing economy – caused entirely by the Pro-employer,
anti-worker, anti-people and utterly destructive anti-national policies of this
BJP Government. Relentless crisis in jobs and bread cannot be camouflaged by
any amount of rhetoric.
This National Convention of Workers appeals to all the
workers, irrespective of their affiliations, to join hands and co-ordinate
their sectoral struggles into a mighty countrywide movement to force the
government to reverse their anti-national policies. Let us send a clear message
to the powers that be, that WE ARE THE WEALTH CREATORS. The wealth that we
create is being looted by the corporates in connivance with the government that
has caused suppressing of effective demand and consequent economic slowdown. We
demand equitable redistribution of the wealth that we create. We want National
Minimum Wage of Rs.21000/- pm (as per the current Cost of Living Index),
Rs.10000/-pm minimum pension for all by Government funding, we want
effective Employment Guarantee Act to cover all rural and urban
households, implementation of MGNREGA with increased number of days and budget
allocation, increased public investment to mitigate rural distress,
remunerative price as per the Swaminathan Commission recommendations for the
agriculture produce with procurement facilities and loan waiver of the
peasantry, we want permanency of employment in decent work, we want Worker
status for all Scheme Workers as unanimously recommended by the ILC, abolition
of contract system and regularisation of contract workers, equal pay and
benefits for equal work and implementation of Sustainable Development
Goals.
This National Convention of Workers records its strong
denunciation of the Communal forces which are cultivating an atmosphere of
conflicts within the society on non-issues, giving an opportunity to the
government to deflect the attention of the masses from core issues of
unemployment, run away price rise etc. They are seeking to disrupt the unity of
the workers and the toiling people in general, so vital to carry forward the
ongoing struggles based on our 12-point Charter of Demands. Working class must
raise their strong voice of protest against these divisive forces which are
threatening the very social fabric of our society and endangering the basic
ethos and core values of Indian Constitution.
The task before the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions
and independent National Federations and Associations is to further intensify
the surging struggles in various sectors through a concerted united agitation
and mobilization for action. The National Mass Convention of Workers calls for
a countrywide general strike action as a consolidation of all sectoral
struggles. This Convention therefore adopts, inter alia, the following programmes
for mobilisation of workers for the grand success of the strike:
Programme of Action over the next three months:
1. Joint Conventions of Workers at Sectoral Level, at State
Level, at District Level during two months of October and November, 2019
2. Widest possible circulation of Declaration down to
factory, establishment, institution and base level through the above activity
during December, 2019
3. Country-wide General Strike On 8th January, 2020
The National Convention calls upon working people across
the sectors and throughout the country irrespective of affiliations to make the
strike action a grand success and further appeals to prepare for bigger actions
if the government fails to pay heed to our demands. We call upon the
people at large to support the strike action.
INTUC AITUC HMS CITU AIUTUC
TUCC SEWA AICCTU LPF UTUC
And Independent Federations, Associations and Unions of
Workers and Employees.
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