Industry in labour trouble as CPI(M), Trinamool unions flex muscles before next year’s polls.
Haldia is West Bengal’s biggest industrial hub. In recent months, it has also become the biggest muscle-flexing ground for the trade unions affiliated to the state’s two main political parties.
With the assembly elections due next year, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-affiliated Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) is trying to hold on to what was its fiefdom. The Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC), on the other hand, is treating the port and commercial hub as its new power centre after the spectacular Lok Sabha election results by the Trinamool Congress.
The Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency (which includes the assembly constituencies of Haldia and Nandigram) was wrested by the Trinamool Congress from CPI(M) in the last elections by a margin of 120,000 votes.
Since both the parties are trying to win over the workers through oneupmanship, Hadia has seen a series of labour disputes. Since November last year, Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL), Hooghly Met Coke and Power Company, Tata Martrade International Logistics, Haldia Dock Complex have seen labour trouble. The latest to join the list are Hindustan Unilever and Tata Chemicals.
Tata Chemicals’ operations at the Haldia plant have been disrupted due to the daily wage labourers and casual workers belonging to Citu going on an indefinite strike. Tata Chemicals had signed a tripartite consensus in the presence of labour authorities on January 8, 2010. However, the union came up with a fresh set of demands. While the matter is under active conciliation, the contract labour union has resorted to strike.
If Citu is one-up in taking up the cause of the workers at Haldia, INTTUC is trying to play a catch-up game, the casualty in this case being Hindustan Unilever’s detergent factory which has been operating since 2001.
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HUL transferred six workers from Haldia factory to Khalilabad in keeping with the terms of employment signed with the Citu-affiliated Hindustan Lever Limited Haldia Detergents Employees Union in January 2009. On account of the transfer, the factory has seen flashpoints in the last few weeks. The Hindustan Unilever Shramik Union affiliated to the INTTUC has taken up the case with the management. With conclusion in the discussions with the management pending, the union suddenly resorted to a strike on February 25. The strike was temporarily called off on February 26 and while conciliation proceedings were pending before the Additional Labour Commissioner, West Bengal, the union once again proceeded on a strike on March 2. There has been a forceful and complete stoppage of man and material flow by blocking factory gates and the strike is now on for over a week.
An HUL spokesperson said: “The business has been under tremendous pressure due to dynamic changes in the market condition, including stiff competition from several low cost competitors making products highly price sensitive. In this market scenario, uninterrupted flow of products is essential for any manufacturing unit to remain competitive. Any disturbance at Haldia will, therefore, adversely impact all stakeholders.
Citu Bengal general secretary Kali Ghosh does not believe the labour disputes are a fallout of the Left’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections and the escalation of work disruption is an attempt to get workers on board before the assembly elections. “Strikes are the last resort for the workers. This is nothing new,” he said.
That’s perhaps the only point where both the parties agree. Said Trinamool Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Partha Chatterjee, “Industrial disputes are a part of industry. Haldia is facing industrial disputes because there are so many industries there.” That’s almost an echo of Kali Ghosh.
While the Trinamool Congress is attempting an image makeover with its “vote for change” campaign after leading the agitation against Singur land acquisition, there is unlikely to be a change in its stance towards industrial disputes.
Ghosh is somewhat right. Except for a brief period after a landslide victory in the assembly elections of 2006 when Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee blacklisted the word gherao, West Bengal has been known to be the citadel of trade union activities. Militant trade unionism in the 1980s led to a flight of capital, a situation that the state is still found to be grappling with.
Dibyendu Bose, chairman of eastern regional infrastructure and shipping sub-committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry has expressed concern over the scenario. “In other states politics and economics are kept separate, unfortunately not in West Bengal. Anyway, the perception about Bengal is low, this is adding to the problem.”
Everyone else agrees, except CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress as they have more crucial issues to tackle. Like the assembly elections, for example.