The Hindu : `Verdict has deprived workers right to collective bargaining'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 14, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

`Verdict has deprived workers right to collective bargaining'

By Our Staff Correspondent

Udupi Sept. 13. G. Rajashekhar, noted writer, said today that the recent Supreme Court ruling on workers' right to go on strike had denied them the right to collective bargaining

He was speaking on "Relevance of trade unions'' at a seminar on "Future of labour unions'' organised by the Corporation Bank Officers' Organisation, here.

Mr. Rajshekhar said that the right to collective bargaining was obtained after 50 years of struggle. A debate on whether workers could go on strike was justified, but it was not correct to say that they should not go on strike, he added.

He said freedom of speech appeared to be contradictory to the Hindutva philosophy. Although 2,000 people were killed in the post-Godhra riots, the authorities were talking only about the Godhra victims. If the rights of the minorities were removed today, the same could happen to other sections of society in the future. In Gujarat, Muslims were unable to return to work. Although trade unions collected funds during national calamities, the Central trade unions maintained silence over the riots after the Godhra incident. The democratic rights of the people were under attack, and if they were not protected, workers' rights would also be under threat, Mr. Rajshekhar said.

The Vice President of the Udupi unit of the CITU, Admar Sripati Acharya, said that the working class need have no fear about the right to strike. For capitalists, democracy was fashionable. But when it became a burden, they revealed their fascist colours, he added.

Mr. Acharya alleged that the Government was acting according to the directions of the U.S. The culture and conditions prevailing in India were vastly different from those in the U.S., and the policies of that country could not be imposed on India, he said.

Presiding over the seminar, the Joint General Secretary of AIBOC, T.R. Bhat, said that globalisation had affected all sections of society.

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