The main base of AICCTU in Sangrur district is the brick kiln workers. They work most of the time as bonded labour; they get advance payments at the start of the season, on account of which they are deprived of negotiation capacity and forced to accept all the harsh working conditions. The old unions associated to CITU and AITUC rarely went beyond organizing customary type of strikes and then negotiating over a few percent of increase in the wages. The issue of the maintaining record of workmen by the brick kiln owners, registering them with the Provident Fund department, ESI, Group Insurance etc., getting uniforms, fixing of work hours, abolition or regulation of the piece rate payments etc. were always pushed back.
So AICCTU this time submitted a demand notice to the brick kiln owners union and raised all the basic demands. The owners joined the conciliatory process and an agreement was finally signed which secured the victory of workmen over the PF question apart from an increment of 25% in the wages above the minimum wages and many other demands. Similarly in Barnala district, we secured a victory over the above demands after a brief strike and an indefinite dharna in front of the DC office. Victory rallies in both these districts were attended by hundreds of workers.
The main base of AICCTU in Chandigarh is contract workers working in different government hospitals, university hostels, and the municipal health and sanitation department. These workers are denied basic rights. There had been a virtual ban on rallies, dharnas and demonstrations. AICCTU is the only union which in the recent months organized a 53-day long dharna in one of the VIP areas in front of the PEC University of Technology and won all the demands. Three tools-down strikes over the issues of delayed salaries, illegal termination and one for undue deductions were organized by our Ekta Contractors Union, GMSH-16, in the month of February alone. About 300 workers participated in a Workers’ March to the Labour Secretary at Chandigarh on February 21. Nearly 500 workers participated enthusiastically in the February 24 Workers’ March to Parliament.
AICCTU Chandigarh has reached out to many unions in Chandigarh, getting them affiliated with it – including PEC Mess Workers Union (regd.), Ekta Contract Workers Union GMSH-16 (regd.), PGI Contract Workers Union (regd.), GMCH-32 Contract Workers Union (regd.), Safayi Karamchari (contract) Union (regd.), TBRL Contract Workers Union (regd.).
A dharna was organized despite massive opposition by the police in the city centre at Plaza Sector 17 on 5 March, against the union budget’s anti people proposals.
The mood has spread to workers in many other unions. The Regular Nursing Staff Union and ISBT Sector 43 Safayi Karamchari Union consulted the AICCTU leadership while going on various protests of their own.
