The 3rd all-India Conference of Indian Railway Employees Federation (IREF), affiliated to AICCTU, was held on 11-12 December 2022 at Dhanbad, Jharkhand. The conference began with an open session of well decorated mass meeting on 11th, against New Pension Scheme and Privatization of Railways. The mass meeting concluded with a clarion call to wage a determined struggle against the attacks on working class by Modi led BJP government.
The open session was inaugurated by the General Secretary of AICCTU, Rajiv Dimri, and was addressed, among others, by Sarvjeet Singh, the GS of IREF and Manoj Pandey, the president of IREF, Vijay Kumar Bandhu, the President of NMOPS (National Movement for Old Pension Scheme), Amrik Singh, the president of the Front Against NPS in Railways (FANPSR) and Vinod Kumar Singh, CPIML MLA in Jharkhand.
The Delegates session began in the evening. After deliberations and contributing to enrichment of report by several delegates, the report was passed unanimously. Followed by the election of a 65-member national executive committee. Manoj Pandey and Sarabjeet Singh were re-elected as President and General Secretary of IREF. More than 200 delegates participated in the conference.
Congratulating the newly elected committee, Rajiv Dimri said that IREF has been able to develop and assert its identity of an alternative federation in Railways, in a situation when all major and recognized unions have surrendered before the anti-worker policies of government. IREF, through its consistent struggle against privatization, including 100-days Action Plan and National Monetisation Policy, has championed the cause of young employees, who are affected the most by NPS. IREF has also emerged as the only federation fighting for the cause of contract labour in various zones. He Underlined the role of IREF as the first federation in the current situation to take an exemplary initiative of launching NMSR (National Movement to Save Railways). NMSR was launched with the aim of uniting Railway employees and common masses against the privatisation of railways. He called upon railway workers to make it a mass movement against the sell-out of railways by the Modi government. He also emphasised the need for strengthening and streamlining the organisation as a pre-condition for raising the struggles to newer heights and for establishing IREF as a real alternative centre, in the coming days.
The conference concluded with passing of resolutions against the NPS, rampant privatization of railways, contractualisation of workforce, labour codes, etc. The conference also resolved to stand in solidarity with the struggling workers of railways at international level. Comrades from Dhanbad were felicitated for playing a major role for the successful conduct of conference.
