They actually wanted to convene a “workers parliament” with widest working class representation cutting across industrial enterprises, small and big sectors of economy, urban and rural unorganised workers. The effort was to evolve a consensus among the workers on various options before them including that of a national general strike.

The nine central trade union organisations including five major - BMS, INTUC, AITUC, HMS and CITU and four smaller ones - AICCTU, AIUTUC, UTUC and TUCC, had taken a very serious view of the fact that the UPA Government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh had shown little concern and refused to heed their urgent demands. All of them together had taken concerted actions to bring to the notice of the Government such demands of serious concern for all working people that needed strict action against unprecedented rise in prices of essential commodities, especially of foodgrains, violation of labour law, disinvestment of profit-making public sector undertakings, prompt setting up of the welfare fund for the agricultural and unorganised sector workers and taking urgent action to solve the problem of increasing joblessness due to global crisis and slowdown.

There was a reason for the 9 CTUOs to think of evolving an appropriate line of action to compel the Government to attend to workers' grievances. They had already held nationwide protest demonstrations followed by 'dharnas' including a 'dharna' in the Capital before the Parliament in which top leaders of the nine CTUOs participated. This was followed by 'Jail Bharo Satyagraha' on March 5, 2010 which was termed by them as the 'biggest united action' of the working class. For instance, in the jail bharo satyagraha leading participants included: Dr Sanjeeva Reddy MP, president INTUC, R.V. Subba Rao, vice-president BMS, Gurudas Dasgupta MP, general secretary AITUC, Umraomal Purohit, general secretary HMS, Dr M.K. Pandhe, president CITU as also Tapan sen MP, secretary CITU, S.P. Tewari, general secretary TUCC, R.K. Sharma, secretary, AIUTUC, Abani Roy MP, general secretary UTUC and Swapan Mukherjee, general secretary AICCTU. They along with thousands of other workers courted arrest at Sansad Marg on the Day.

In this backdrop when the Government has refused to take notice of the issues raised by the nine CTUOs through protest demonstrations, dharnas and courting arrests of leaders and workers all over the country, all CTUOs' leaders are perforce called upon to think of chalking out other options including that of a nationwide general strike. A section of CTUOs believe they have already exhausted all other options, therefore, now a general strike remains the only weapon to give a strong jolt to the Government.

As for the Manmohan Singh Government is concerned, democratic process and practical policies demanded that it should have called a delegation of the protesting CTUOs and heard their view point and grievances. The Government did not do so. On the face of it, the protest of the CTUOs is led by the pro-Congress INTUC chief Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy. Leading the CTUOs' jail bharo protest on March 5, 2010, the INTUC chief was reported by the 'Indian Express' to have said, “The increasing prices of food articles have hit the workers very hard and curtailed their purchasing power. We are opposed to some of the policies like disinvestment of profit-making PSUs. I am not prohibited from attending such rallies. Besides the Government should be willing to sit and discuss with us. There is no other option. I have to be loyal with the working class.”

Fact of the matter also is that the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh appears to have developed some sort an allergy vis-à-vis the country's organised labour. He told the employers not to bother about the organised labour in matter of labour laws for, there are 92 per cent unorganised labour that they can use as they like. And they are happily misusing the lakhs of contract labour. For all the six years Manmohan Singh has been in office, he refused to inaugurate the country's highest Labour Tripartite, Indian Labour Conference, even once for reasons best known to him. No previous Prime Minister ever insulted the ILC in such a manner. Moreover, whether it was the question of appointing the long delayed Sixth Central Pay Commission or the question of initiating long overdue wage negotiations in PSUs, the Government kept on delaying action. Only when the Joint Negotiating Committee of Central Employees called for a general indefinite strike of employees did the Government climb down. The same was the case with Coalmen's wage negotiations. The point is that the threat of a strike, industrial or nationwide, has to be backed by real strength if the present corporate-centric Government has to be made to see reason.

A nationwide general strike can make an impact only if the Railwaymen, Port and Dock workers, Postal and Communications employees, Power sector employees, Coal and Steel workers, Road Transport workers, Airports employees take active part along with the State Government employees. All are affected by prices unbearable inflation, PSUs' privatization, absence of labour laws enforcement etc. The nine CTUOs are involved in organizing almost all these sectors. There are Independent unions too. They can make the strike real but they have to ensure that all these sectors do participate. There should be thorough discussion and “joint preparation” for it if that is considered the necessary option.

There are millions of workers still outside the fold of nine CTUOs, some of them have just started to unionise the workers employed in MGNREGA whereas the UPA Government claims to have provided employment to over 40 million workers including women, SC and ST workers. They deserve attention of the nine CTUOs. (IPA Service)