Author Archives: admin

ALL INDIA CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SECTOR TRADE UNIONS CALLS FOR COMPLETE STRIKE ON SEPTEMBER 2.

 

 

The meeting of the All India Co-Ordination Committee of Public Sector Trade Unions (CITU), held at Hyderabad on 22nd June 2015 has called upon the entire PSU workers, including contract workers, to organise and make the One Day Strike called by the Central Trade Unions a big success.

The meeting was held at Com. Sunderayya Vignan Kendra, at Hyderabad. !52 delegates from 46 unions participated. From BSNLEU and BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Federation, Coms. V.A.N.Namboodiri, Swapan Chakraborty, J.Sampath Rao, Mohan Redyy, Taranath and Paripoornachari participated.

Meeting was presided by Com. Vishnu Mohanty, CITU Vice-President. Com. Tapan Sen, General secretary, CITU, inaugurated the convention. Com. Swadesh Dev Roy, Convener, Co-Ordination Committee, presented the report and reported the latest developments. More than 25 comrades participated in the discussion. Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri and Com. Swapan Chakraborty addressed on behalf of BSNLCCWF and BSNLEU respectively.

The Convention unanimously decided to make massive campaign amongst the workers about the anti-worker policies of the government. The policy of the government to close or privatise all the PSUs has to be resisted and defeated. The exploitation of the casual and contract workers have to be opposed and justice meted out to them. The immediate task is to campaign to make the strike a complete success. State level conventions should be organised. Without struggle, negotiations will not be successful. The report presented by the Convener was unanimously adopted. It was also suggested that a meeting of the CPSTU be held in preparation of the strike.

The meeting of the Co-ordination Committee and the discussions and decisions have enthused the delegates. All are determined to make the strike a big success.

 

BSNL ON THE IMPROVEMENT LINE- SAYS COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER.

 

 

Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in an interview stated that BSNL is on the comeback track. The report in the press is given below:

“Another challenge he said was BSNL. “So much public money has been invested. BSNL’s profit in 2004, when we left office, was Rs. 10,000 crore and after 10 years when we came back to power, it is incurring a loss of Rs. 8,000 crore. This was for a variety of reasons, some very unfair,” he said. One year down the line, BSNL has added 47 lakh new active customers and its revenue has gone up by 2 per cent, he said, adding that “today BSNL has the strength to offer free roaming… Also in the offing are other plans, including changing the network to the next generation in the next two-three years.”

Explaining why he has been emphasising the issue of call drops, he said that while he may be “Minister for Telecom working for growth of the sector” he also needs to protect the interests of consumers. “(Courtesy: Business Line)

 

BREAKTHROUGH IN GREECE CRISIS.

 Greece’s economy minister, Giorgos Stathakis, has told the BBC that he believes Athens’ new proposals have broken the deadlock. And he also reckons that European leaders will reflect that in their communique tonight. Robert Peston, the Beeb’s economics editor, has the story: He said he expects eurozone government heads to issue a communique later today that will say there is now a basis for a formal agreement with Athens to complete the current bailout programme and release €7.2bn of vital funds. Mr Stathakis conceded that technical work would need to be done in the coming days to formalise the agreement. But he was hopeful that Greece would be able to make its €1.5bn payment to the IMF on its due date of June 30 – and therefore avoid a devastating default.

He detailed Greece’s new money-raising proposals. These include:

A new tax on businesses

A new tax on the wealthy,

Some increases in the VAT rate on selected items.

                                                                                                       (COURTESY: THE GUARDIAN.)

WFTU PROTESTS AUTHORITARIAN ACTION BY ISRAEL.

18 Jun 2015
 

The Secretariat of the World Federation of Teachers’ Union, FISE (WFTU) expresses its strong protest against the illegal and authoritarian methods of the Israeli police against our colleague, Alexandra Liberi, member of the WFTU, who was arrested at the airport in Tel Aviv and banished afterwards.

We denounce the unacceptable action of the government of the State of Israel to the detriment of the WFTU.

We strengthen our solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people for an independent state, against the military occupation of Israel which has the support of the US government, the governments of the countries of Europe and NATO.

The Secretary

 
 
 

70th ANNIVERSARY OF WFTU OBSERVED IN GREECE.

 

 

 

The internationalist event for the 70th  anniversary of WFTU, organized by the administration of the Labour Centre of Larissa held successfully .

The event was attended by the delegation from the trade unions in Khartoum, Sudan, which is invited in Larissa, Greece by the Labour Centre of Larissa.

Before the start of the event, the President of  the Labour Centre of Larissa cde Tasos Tsiaples on behalf of the leadership of the Labour Centre of Larissa  exchanged gifts with the delegates from Khartoum.

 
 
 

BRITISH PEOPLE DETERMINED TO RESIST THE MERCILESS AUSTERITY MEASUERS.

Thousands join anti-austerity march in Britain.

Thousands join anti-austerity march in Britain

Demonstrators congregate in Parliament square to hear speeches at the end of a protest march against the British government’s spending cuts and austerity measures in London on Saturday. Photo: Justin Tallis/AFP
London: Thousands of demonstrators staged an anti-austerity march in London on Saturday, in the first major public protest since Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron won a general election.
Opposition politicians, trade union bosses and celebrities, including singer Charlotte Church and comedian Russell Brand, were among the crowds marching through the capital’s financial district.
The “End Austerity Now” demonstration—billed by organizers as the biggest in years—will finish outside parliament, while a similar march will take place in Glasgow.
There were several thousand marchers taking part in London, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Protesters called for the halting and reversal of spending cuts imposed by the previous coalition government and further measures proposed by finance minister George Osborne.
“We have seen a huge impact on our work at primary school,” said Sian Bloor, 45, a teacher from Trafford near Manchester.
“I regularly bring clothes and shoes for children and biscuits for their breakfast, just so they get something to eat.
“You can see how children are being affected by the cuts.”
Placard-waving protesters marched from the Bank of England and filed past the nearby Royal Exchange, as the sound of drummers filled the air, creating a festival atmosphere.
Some of the placards read: “Austerity Doesn’t Work”, “No to Cuts”, “Get the Tories Out” and “Austerity is Class War”.
A wide variety of campaigners were at the rally, including those opposed to Trident, hunting, tuition fees, fracking, along with various trade unions.
“It will be the start of a campaign of protest, strikes, direct action and civil disobedience up and down the country,” said Sam Fairbairn of organizers the People’s Assembly.
“We will not rest until austerity is history, our services are back in public hands and the needs of the majority are put first.”
Cameron clinched an unexpected election victory on 7 May that gave his centre-right Conservative party an outright majority in parliament for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The victory was widely seen as an endorsement of the Conservatives’ austerity programme and is likely to see a continuation of cuts to public spending as they seeks to curb a budget deficit of nearly £90 billion (€120 billion, $140 billion).
The Conservatives had already implemented swinging cutbacks in public services and welfare spending during the previous coalition administration with the centrist Liberal Democrats.
Organisers are seeking on Saturday to highlight the impact of previous cutbacks on public services, the state-run National Health Service (NHS), welfare and education.
They will also warn over the effects of new austerity measures that Osborne is expected to unveil in a new budget on 8 July.
The coalition’s austerity policies included around £20 billion of cuts to welfare, which will be reduced by another £12 billion over the next five years.
 
 

UK TATA STEEL WORKERS LIKELY TO DEFER THE STRIKE.

 

 

It is reported that the UK  TATA Steel Workers may defer the proposed strike in view of the discussions held between the unions and the management and the proposed settlement. However, since, strike ballot was taken and the vast majority supported the strike, another ballot may be required for deferring the strike considering the discussion and proposed settlement.

COM. NARAYAN MITRA SINGH PASSED AWAY.

 

Veteran leader of BSNL Employees and Pensioners Comrade Narayan Mitra Singh passed away at about 4-30 AM today (20th June’15) at his son’s residence in the BSNL Staff Quarters at Manicktala, Kolkata. He was 91 years old. Com. Singh was a militant leader of the Line-staff & Group-D employees of Calcutta Telephones during his service life and occupied various posts in the NFPTE union. He was Calcutta Telephones Circle Vice-president of All India BSNL – DoT Pensioners Association (AIBDPA) from its inception till last Circle Conference held in February’15. Thereafter he became Permanent Invitee to the Circle Union. Even at the old age, he used to look after the Union Office at ‘Olympia House’ till he fell ill few months back. He had to be hospitalized in April last and recovered. However, the end has come suddenly this morning. Despite his Hindi-speaking origin, he was proficient in Bengali language also. He had translated a famous book on Marxism in Hindi.

Mihir Dasgupta's photo.
AIBDPA PAYS RESPECTFUL HOMAGE TO THE VETERAN LEADER AND CONVEYS DEEP CONDOLENCES TO THE BEREAVED FAMILY AND COMRADES IN KOLKATA.

ONE RANK ONE PENSION- WHY THE GOVERNMENT PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK? – EDITORIAL OF TELE PENSIONER,

 ” Pension is not a bounty nor a matter of grace depending upon the sweet will of the employer. It is not an ex-gratia payment, but a payment for past services rendered”

This is the famous declaration made by the apex court, the Supreme Court in the historical judgment in the D.S. Nakera case. Even after 32 years of this judgment which is considered as the Magna Carta of the pensioners and the spirit of the contents is yet to be digested by the ruling class and the authorities. And that is why the government is dilly-dallying in implementing the ONE RANK, ONE PENSION.

What does one rank, one pension (OROP) means? It is a very long standing demand of the defense veterans. Retired soldiers of the same rank and equal length of service should get the same amount of pension, regardless of the date of retirement. In other words, equal pension for those who have retired in one particular year, as those who retire later in another year at the same position, and for the same duration of service rendered. Now, there is huge gap between the past pensioners and the present pensioners in the same rank and same length of service. This gap keeps widening with every pay revision based on successive recommendations of the Pay Commissions. It is also a fact that the defense pensioners do not get to serve many years that are required to procure optimum pension amount. So the demand of one rank, one pension is nothing short of parity in pension.

The Ex-Servicemens’ Organisations have conducted several agitations demanding OROP and a they got a favourable judgement of the apex court in this regard. During the UPA government’s regime a Parliamentary Committee appointed to study the issue had given an unanimous recommendation for implementation of one rank, one pension. Still the Man Mohan Singh government tried their level best to deny the benefit to the war veterans. And only after further sustained struggles by the defense veterans, the Congress government at the fag end of their regime allocated a meager Rs.500 crore in the interim budget of 2014-15 to implement the OROP.

It was one of the important promises of the BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha election that they are committed to implement one rank, one pension if they are elected to power.They are giving assurances after assurances after coming to power on implementation. The Defense Minister, Shri. Manohar Parikkar had stated that his ministry has completed the formalities and OROP will be implemented prospectively fro the financial year 2014-15. But contrary to this, the Finance Minister, Shri. Arun Jaitly allocated a paltry Rs.1000 crore for implementation of the scheme which reflected the negative approach of the BJP government on this vital issue. In the same budget the Finance Minister so generously granted a tax concession of 5.9 lakh crore for the corporates, scrapped the wealth tax and reduced the corporate tax from 30% to 25%.But still not interested to allot an estimated Rs.8000 crore to implement the genuine demand of 3 million defense veterans and 6 lakh war widows.

Now the Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi says the issue is complicated ,vexed and has several definitions. This is a clear indication of dilution of the concept of OROP. He further says that his government will implement it but will not give any time frame. Naturally, the war veterans have become furious against this double standard and rather cheating and has started hunger fast in New Delhi and all other places across the country from June 14, 2015. AIBDPA fully supports the agitation and calls upon all its units to extend solidarity to the agitations of the war veterans.

REVIVAL OF BSNL- PRIME MINISTER HELD DISCUSSION WITH COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER.

According to media reports, Shri. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister has discussed the issue of revival of BSNL with Shri. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Communications Minister earlier this week. The top officers from DOT and BSNL were also present. It is reported that an effective presentation was made on the issue. However the outcome of the discussion is yet to be known.

The Communications Minister had made quite a few statements in the Parliament on the issue. But so far nothing is done in practical.