Trade unions may spoil Dunlop party

After a gap of one year, Dunlop India's Sahaganj plant will resume operation on December 2. But competitive trade union activities might create some problems for the management as both the TMC and CPI(M)-affiliated workers unions there are gearing up for some agitation.

Though the general feeling among the majority of the workers is that of a relief as the management finally asked them to join work from December 2, a section of workers started demanding inclusion of the 25 workers who had been chargesheeted by the management earlier.

The political leaders are also jumping into the fray, as Partha Chatterjee, the Opposition leader in the state Assembly and a senior leader of TMC, has indicated that his party is sympathetic to the workers' issue and he would personally take it up with the Dunlop management.

The Citu leadership is not lagging behind. They have come to the support of the workers. So, after Haldia Petrochemicals, Dunlop is likely to be turned into another ground for turf war between the CPI(M) and TMC-affiliated trade unions.

Operations at the Sahaganj plant of Dunlop India Ltd were suspended since 30 November 2008 as it was suffering from paucity of fund. After infusion of bank credit and a protracted negotiation with the WBSEBDCL over the long-pending dues of electricity bills, the management aked 1,039 workers to join work from December 2.

But it did not include 25 workers who had been earlier chargesheeted by the company for gross indiscipline and unruly behaviour. A spokesperson of the Dunlop management has pointed out that of the 25 workers who had been chargesheeted, 13 had been sacked. Despite passage of over one year, none of these chargesheeted workers challenged the management's decision in court.

But, if the recent trend in the trade union practice is any indicator, then the problem might not be resolved so easily, as the Haldia Petrochemicals management has realised it recently. At Haldia, the showpiece industrial town of the Left Front government, the Citu workers union armtwisted the management in acceding to the demand of a 146 per cent wage hike of contract labourers over a period of next three years.

In the time of political change in the state when the supporters and activists of the CPI(M)-led mass organisations are increasingly switching their allegiance to the TMC side, the Citu is now going back to its old militant form to retain their members. This has given rise to all sorts demands on the management from the competitive unions.

In the coming days, the Dunlop management is likely to experience just that.