From correspondents in Delhi, India, 08:30 PM IST
Employees of the state-owned telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will strike work Wednesday in protest against proposed disinvestment in the company, a labour leader said Monday.
Wednesday is also when the BSNL board meets to discuss growth strategies and the proposal to dilute 10 percent equity, a move expected to fetch around $10 billion (Rs.400 billion).
The decision to disinvest has brought the management in direct conflict with employees' unions, which have threatened to go on an indefinite strike.
'We will go on a token strike Wednesday, and if the government goes ahead with its decision to disinvest, we will go on an indefinite strike,' BSNL union general secretary V.A.N. Namboodri told IANS.
According to him, BSNL did not have to raise money from the primary market.
"It is debt-free and has a net worth of Rs.750 billion Any bank will give loans to the company for expansion,' Namboodri said.
The union also opposes the proposed price band of Rs.300-400 for BSNL shares.
"Who decides what the price band should be? When companies like Vodafone Essar and Bharti Airtel can have a price band of around Rs.800-900, how come the country's number one telecom company is priced so low?"
Moreover, he said, there is no guarantee that the amount raised will be ploughed into BSNL.
"The amount will go to the government and this might not necessarily be used for BSNL's expansion," he said, to explain why his union was opposing disinvestment.
'Telecom companies like MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd), Hindustan Cables and ITI Ltd who listed themselves on the stock exchange are now loss-making companies for the past five years,' Namboodri said.
He said the union has conveyed its opposition to disinvestment in submissions made to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Telecom Minister A. Raja, Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura and the BSNL management.
"We have been assured by the telecom minister that the government will not proceed without the trade union's consent,' Namboodri said.
Though the company's 304,000 employees have been offered 500 shares each at Rs.10 a share, Namboodri said it was a "bait" to lure them. "But nothing will get us to accept this offer'.
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Communist 'stalwarts', for ex. Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, or Mr Somnath Chatterji, have got fed up of the irrelevant nonsense that their ideology has become due to the fast surge of capitalism with its aim of thinking globally and acting locally. Thus the prospect is communism will die in spirit but may survive, for saving face, in name.When this happens, labour unions will be further weakened.Right now, the unions of PSUs. and private business must start reorienting to collective bargaining needs with a reasonable basis, BUT CERTAINLY without red flags, work stoppages, industry bandhs, strikes, violence, damaging of capital equipment, etc.which are now despised all the world over. India cannot remain an island in this scenario.
There is no rhyme or reason for BSNL employees to oppose disinvestment. They are not the people to decide the policies for BSNL which the Indian people decide through their representatives. If the Comrades,who form a small proportion of MPs., keep instigating BSNL and other PSU labour, due to their having been sidelined in Indian politics, they will not succeed. They will just mindlessly inconvenience large masses of people and they will forego even the existing level of toleration by the public. Hence sanity demands BSNL workers keep quiet about disinvestment policy.They should go on strike against their own poor productivity and work ethics in many parts of India, if they cannot get out their routine mindset of strikes.
This or other future strikes in the agenda of the BSNL unions against disinvestment, working condition gievances, or ...., will only hasten the slow death of BSNL despite partiality in policies shown by govt. in favour of BSNL visavis private players. This, because substantial nos.of users of BSNL phones, already fed up of its shoddy services in many areas, will now be induced to consider change over to private ISPs.
If competition in basic telephone services had expanded all over India, without the kind of absurd conditions and licence fees of the govt., it would have made such irresponsible activities of BSNL negligible. The govt. should therefore wake up to this need at least now and act. BSNL will not change as long as unionisation law is not drastically changed. The disruption in present circumstances will therefore be felt by the public.
The communist parties have withdrawn support to the central govt. They will now be bent upon maximum disruption in the economic administration of the country siezing every half chance to do so. The BSNL strike is just a sample of things to come as we falter along with a dream to become a 'superpower' trailing far, far behind China.
The public want that disinvestment must be done even if in gradual degrees, to such an extent that eventually BSNL will be a good PSU. competitor to private telecom players. Only then can it fulfil the most important objective set for PSUs.The way PSUs.have been nurtured have made them no great examples of productivity of investment or customer satisfaction.They were NEVER intended to be places for providing armies of people, as a mitigator of unemployment. Those union activities which do not recognize the original objectives for PSUs.must be declared illegal under a suitably modified law.Old style unionism has been discarded all over the world except due to CPI, CPM, in India
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