The ordinance notified prison terms and fines for commencing or inciting strikes at OFB and its units. “Any person, who commences a strike which is illegal under this Ordinance or goes or remains on, or otherwise takes part in, any such strike, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine which may extend to ₹10,000 or both,” the Law Ministry notification said. The notification added that anyone instigating or inciting others to take part in a strike declared illegal under the Ordinance shall also be punishable with imprisonment for a period upto two years, apart from having to pay fines. OFB is part of the department of defence production under the union defence ministry. Under the law, strike in a defence establishment is prohibited. One wonders why the government chose to promulgate an ordinance to ban the strike instead of taking a prohibitory order from the supreme court. Was the government unsure about the effectiveness of such a judicial verdict in view of the fact almost 90 percent of OFB employees are civilians and the trade union activities were historically allowed in the establishment?

The government, probably, does not want to take a chance. Indian Army is heavily dependent on OFB for all kinds of essential supplies — from armoured vehicles, ammunition, explosives, weapons and components to clothing. The ordnance factories are often called the "fourth arm of defence.” There may be other reasons too behind the government’s drastic action. They include the BJP government’s dropping popularity before the working class for its reckless privatisation of high value public sector enterprises of national importance. The unions are already upset with various government actions sharply reducing their importance in industrial relations.

For instance the Industrial Relations Code, which became a law in September 2020, introduced the concept of ‘negotiating union or a negotiating council’, curbing the proliferation of unions and ensuring their representative character when it comes to taking up workers’ causes. In an industrial unit where there are more than one trade union, the union having 50 percent or more workers on the muster roll of the concerned unit will be the sole negotiating union. If more than one trade union of workers registered under the IR Code are functioning in an industrial establishment, and no such trade union has 50 percent or more workers on the muster roll, a negotiating council will be constituted by the employer.

The Communist Party of India and its affiliated All-India Trade Union Congress have been most critical of the ordinance as it fears a ‘hidden’ game plan behind the corporatisation move that may ultimately lead to sale of several defence units. In a statement, CPI said the government claimed that only four public sector units must remain in the strategic sector. The 41 Indian ordnance factories were being converted into seven corporations. “When the seven Ordnance Factories Corporations will be added to the existing eight Defence PSUs, it will become 15 DPSUs. Out of the 15, which four will remain with the government is not known,” the party said.

Clearly, the aim is to declare these newly made corporations “sick” and to sell them. “Smelling this danger, the trade unions of defence civilian employees, for the past more than one year, are fighting to save the Ordnance Factories and 76,000 employees,” it said. However, the government has ignored all their proposals and representations and even conciliation proceedings have been closed abruptly, the party pointed out. The ordinance had been brought to crush strikes, the last available option before the unions. “This is draconian and against the legal right of the employees,” CPI said.

While the Modi-led NDA government, in its first term (2014-19), had reasons to be generally happy with the drop of industrial disputes, strikes, lock-outs and loss of man days and hours, things started changing fast in its current term as the government took one after another politically-oriented economic decisions that continuously raised suspicion about the government intent. The first successful ‘Bharat Bandh’ on January 8, last year, called collectively by all major trade unions — INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC — along with various sectoral independent federations and associations restored the confidence of labour unions across the country and provided new impetus to labour movement. For the first time, it also exposed the fallibility of the government’s growing anti-labour and anti-people policies

In fact, India woke up on January 8, to witness the largest ever strike with an estimated 250 million workers, employees, farmers and rural labourers stopping work and hitting the streets to protest against the Modi government’s economic policies and divisive politics. The strike was complete in the country’s PSUs across sectors, such as steel, coal and mining, defence production, port & dock, oil & natural gas, telecom, power generation, etc. Besides this, workers in the private sector across engineering, automobile and components, telecom, metals, textiles and garments, power and many other sectors joined the strike.

Meanwhile, the continuing farmers’ agitations in Punjab, Haryana and parts of North India against three farm acts passed by the Parliament in September 2020 also seem to have shaken the government. The BJP government’s public popularity seems to have clearly waned. This could probably explain the government’s drastic step to promulgate an ordinance to ban strike at OFB. It is to be seen how the central trade unions react to the move on July 26. A successful implementation of OFB’s corporatisation plan is now very important for the government to restore its public image as a tough decision maker. All eyes are on July 26. (IPA Service)