Noida CEO Killed - What Signal it Emits
The permanent workers of Grazziano Transmissioni, an Italian firm at Noida went for reinstatement to their jobs from which they have been kicked out by the company management repeatedly in groups from January 2008. That was the fateful day ? 17th September 2008. The workers have been eagerly waiting for their reinstatement on the basis of an understanding reached at the Additional Labour commissioners office, Ghaziabad and were ready to give a mafi-nama. Mafi-nama for what? For forming a union and demanding proper human working conditions, safety during work and wage increasing which they had placed before the management from Nov. 2007!
The company management forcibly tried to make them write responsibility for disruptions and unruliness at the factory which they had not done and make assurances that there won?t be any workers agitations in future. The small team of workers representatives were surrounded by threatening goons in ?security? uniform. Amidst protest by the workers a security guard fired in the air to frighten them and further coerce them.
What followed was further intensifying of the conflict, assault on the workers and the rush of the mass of workers waiting anxiously outside to join duty. In that melee the CEO probably got the fatal injuries. The nine month old adamance of the Grazziano management not to hear to the grievances of his workmen, not to allow them even their right to organize a union culminated into this.
But the story propagated by the capitalist media does not reveal this. On the contrary the whole media, the Italian owners of the company, the Italian Embassy, Foreign capitalists and their governments, the capitalists? associations like FICCI & ASSOCHAM etc., the state and central governments all swooped down on the workers stamping them murderers.
Only one voice for a moment seemed to be out of tune. The central labour minister uttered for once ? that the CEOs should also be compassionate to the workers grievances. What the minister told? We are quoting from an Economic Times editorial which gave an account of the sentences uttered by Mr. Oscar Fernandez only to besmirch and rebuff him at the end.
?The minister, who did not sound perturbed about the impact the incident would have on the morale of corporates operating in troubled spots, said the death of the CEO should ?serve as a warning? for managements. ?It is my appeal to managements that workers should be dealt with compassion,? the minister said.
?the minister said disparities in the working area was the cause of the trouble. ?There are disparities in the wages of permanent employees and contract workers. The workers should not be pushed so hard that they resort to whatever that had happened in Noida,? he said.
?The minister said dwindling employment opportunities was a major worry. ?The number of organised workers has been decreasing. It came down from 7% to 6%. We are going to discuss the matter of hire and fire policy in the next labour congress,? the minister said.
?Mr Fernandes appear to consider the trade union rationale more credible. ?The workforce is unable to express its simmering discontent over the management policies, leading to strained ties between them and the management,? he said.?
Then, amidst immense pressure from the deshi and videshi capitalists, the media and the govt even he had to give a public mafi-nama! But media?s anger didn?t cool down by his ?repentance?.
But why Mr Fernandez said this? Is he supportive of the working class? Not at all. The working class should not have any illusion as regards this. He could be a pro-working class person ? were he so we wouldn?t see him in the Congress party or any party of the establishment including the so called communist parties. All these parties, directly or indirectly paved the way for Liberalisation?Privatisation?Globalisation. These parties served the bourgeoisie in the pre 1990s also. Then what the Minister?s intention? The Labour Minister was only issuing a ?Storm Signal? for the foreign and native capitalists. And his calculations for weather forecast was not baseless. Only some months back there was another incident of workers? unruliness(!) and firing on workers by pet goons or ?security guards? in Noida. Again, a few months back, in the Honda factory at Gurgaon, the contract workers started a strike which was later joined by permanent workers by the aggressive stance of the management against the permanent workers too.
It cannot be believed that the capitalists forgot that so quickly and easily. In fact, the media would not be so angry with the Minister if he told the same thing in a closed door meeting or in a brain storming session with the capitalists to warn them and devise some method jointly to tackle the workers in such fiery moments. The Media was so irritated that the Economic Times editorial bore a title: And The Oscar For Insensitivity Goes To?. Out and out lies poured in: just see one example.
?Labour, laws and lawlessness ? Views ? livemint.com Posted: Thu, Sep 25 2008. 12:20 AM IST
?In a perfectly competitive world, it does not matter whether labour hires capitalists or capitalists hire labour. But in Noida?s imperfect milieu, hammer-wielding workers call the shots. Indian labour laws are helping them create a workers? paradise. ?
?? Workers are hired on a contract basis. Soon, they begin demanding higher wages and permanent jobs, and unrest follows. They are sacked, a lockout takes place and before you know it, politicians step in ? on the workers? side, of course.?
Perhaps the writer of the above piece has with him data showing what percentage of contract workers got permanent jobs in last 3 decades!!! Then we would like to study those! And he should also answer why he hinted that the Grazziano workers were ?contract? workers demanding permanency of jobs. The fact is: the act for abolition of contract and casual system is in the country since early 1970s. But in practice the act doesn?t mean any thing for the workers.
The profit hungry aggressive capitalist of the present era of globalization bared its blood sucking teeth and claws to suppress any voice of dissent that may reveal the real causes behind Grazziano like incidents. In fact the Honda incident snowballed from a management staff physically assaulting a contract worker! Rather they all clamoured in unison that the outdated labour laws about which the govt is still dilly-dallying is the cause of this. It must be dismantle and the right to hire and fire at will must be given to the companies now. Otherwise there is the threat that capital investment will not come. What they never say and what is the truth is: the so called outdated labour laws are not helping the workers at all; the capitalists have got free hands in doing anything they want!
The top echelons of the govt up to the PM?s office rocked with such criticisms. The govt machinery started actively hounding the workers. About 140 Grazziano workers were arrested, 20 of them booked with murder charges. The top govt officials and CEOs of Noida and Greater Noida authority sat with industrialists who assuage their fears and assure and appease them. The state govt of U.P. decided to assemble a special police force to keep down any workers agitations. The CEOs of these two regions were given special powers of the Labour Commissioner to instantly curb any further industrial unrest. Even the attempted kidnapped of another CEO of a different company in Noida by a gang of criminals within a couple of days was reported in the media as another attempt on a CEO. An atmosphere of witch hunting of workers and unions was built up. The aggressive face of globalization was thus revealed in its naked form.
To any person really conversant with the grass root reality of the workers conditions of work the truth behind such incidence lies else where. They openly say, unions are registered only after giving huge amount of bribes and that also comes into existence in fewer factories. The govt the Labour department and police all stand in favour of the employers even denying the minimum eligible rights to the workmen in most of the factories. The whole system of this ruling class apparatus are in collusion with the capitalist to threaten, harass and deprive the workers. More than 25 workers were killed in explosions from scrap in Bhusan steel in adjoining Ghaziabad a couple of years ago. The employers are still continuing with all their illegal, unsafe exploitation of the workers openly. At the end of last year in another company in Noida the security guard fired on the demonstrating workers assembly on the order of the employer. The employers was escorted out safely by the local S.P. of police and a fake FIR registered against the workers while the workers? FIR was not even admitted and recorded. 13 workers landed in jail and the employer is still moving about scot-free threatening and denying the workers their livelihood. Here also the workers wanted to form their union and establish minimum legally recognized rights. The govt departments have passively and even scrumptiously connived with the employers. On the other hands the corrupt union officials of the big central trade unions only succumb to these manipulations leaving the workers to suffer.
The workers of all factories must rise as a class against this brutal exploitation and oppression on their own to would forward before the whole society that this employers? raj must come to an end and all the toiling masses must get ready to dismantle. The killing of the Grazziano CEO is the unintended result of an unbearable situations created in the industrial areas by the capitalists and the govt and their political parties serving them. What the intended result for the working class should be is the destruction of this inhuman system by a conscious build up of class struggle.
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