Working Class

AICCTU organized a Jan Jagaran Abhiyan in the coal industry. Gate meetings were held at Hadiyajam, Shyampur-B, Champapur and Lakhimata Collieries in the ECL Mugma area. A similar program was also held at the Dahibadi Colliery. Meetings were organized at each colliery in CCL against the directive for ‘staggered rest’ instead of Sunday rest and the transfer of workers. There is considerable anger among the coal workers against the Coal India management and the Central government.

THE DTC workers under the banner of DTC Workers’ Unity Centre have been carrying forward against the Delhi govt. circular reducing the wages of all contract workers. From mass leaves to burning of the circular and reporting to work with black bands, the DTC workers came together to raise the demands of withdrawal of the AAP Gov.’s circular reducing wages; equal work for equal wages; an end to attempts to privatize DTC; and expansion of DTC fleet.

Between the 25 and 28 of September the DTC Workers Unity Centre conducted a strike ballot across all the Delhi Transport Corporation Depots in the city. In total, more than ten thousand votes for the strike ballot were cast by DTC workers in over 40 depots across the length and breadth of the capital. On each day voting started at 5 AM in the morning when workers come in for the first shift of the day and went on till 5 PM when the last shift for the day starts.

BETWEEN the 25 and 28 of September the DTC Workers Unity Centre conducted a strike ballot across all the Delhi Transport Corporation Depots in the city. On 25th the vote was conducted in East Delhi depots, on 26th in North Delhi depots, on 27th in West Delhi depots and on the 28th in South Delhi Depots. In total, more than ten thousand votes for the strike ballot were cast by DTC workers in over 40 depots across the length and breadth of the capital.

THE Delhi High Court recently struck down the minimum wages Notification which had been issued after a long struggle. This unfortunate decision has brought the lives of lakhs of workers in Delhi under a dark cloud of uncertainty. Already oppressed by factory owners’ whims and government neglect, the Court’s verdict has dealt a shattering blow to the workers.

On 13 August 2018, workers’ union of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), held an angry sit in protest outside the Labour Department Office demanding equal pay for equal work, legally mandated minimum wage and that their jobs are regularized. The protesting workers shared that in absence of regularization, job security, benefits like ESI, PF etc. remain denied to them. The contract system is extremely exploitative and encourages disproportionate and unequal payments. Com.

Workers in tea gardens of both West Bengal and Assam are a famished lot. After Indian Railways, Tea is among the biggest industries in terms of providing employment in the land where millions of workers are regularly deprived even of subsistence wages and suffer from starvation deaths, not restricted only to abandoned or locked out tea gardens.

On 22 July 2018, the Comrade Nirdosh Uppal, President of Federation of Unions of Industrial Workers (FUIW) presided a meeting of the workers’ leaders of the J&K unit of All India Central Committee of Trade Unions (AICCTU). General Secretary of AICCTU, Com. Rajiv Dimiri was the main speaker. CPI(ML) CC member Com. Sukhdarshan Natt and other state level trade union leaders also addressed the meet.