[DEBATE] : New TU Initiative, India

[Peter Waterman]

Hard News
April 2006

Labouring unity

A new national trade union federation believing in one union at the 
workplace, one federation in one industry and one national trade 
union organisation

Bela Malik Delhi

History as is its wont was being made quietly, safe from the media's 
glare which was concerned with US president, George W Bush's state 
visit to New Delhi (March 2-4). On March 6, more than one million 
workers joined a new trade union federation (New Trade Union 
Initiative, NTUI). The addition of one more national trade union 
federation to the national scenario could escape attention. What 
singles out this initiative is a belief in the unity of the trade 
union movement, done through the shedding of sectarianism and 
charting out what General Secretary, Ashim Roy terms "an actionable 
solidarity" towards a single national trade union federation. Gautam 
Mody, Secretary, NTUI, added, "The day that all progressive, 
democratically structured unions can come under one umbrella, we will 
become redundant."

The foundation of the NTUI led to constitution of a committee to 
negotiate with all progressive trade unions towards trade union 
unity, building merger into the birth. Because the trade union 
movement in India grew out of the struggle for independence, the 
majority of individual unions have most often been aligned to 
political parties. It will be recalled that the All India Trade Union 
Congress (AITUC), the oldest trade union federation in India, formed 
in 1920, predates the formation of the Communist Party of India, 
arguably 1925, and remained completely autonomous for many years. 
AITUC is the founding member of The World Federation of Trade Unions 
(WFTU), which was established in the wake of the Second World War to 
bring together trade unions across the world in a single 
international organisation, much like the United Nations.

NTUI questions party affiliation in the context of the general mood 
among workers for unity and asks trade unions to revisit the 
assumption that every political difference requires union 
differentiation.

A trade union without the backing of a political party might be 
incapable of resisting the offensive against workers. The only answer 
is, as VB Cherian, veteran activist of the Kochi Port and Dockworkers 
Union put it: "get united is the objective compulsion."

However the task of trade union unity - one union at the workplace, 
one federation in one industry and one national trade union 
organisation - is formidable. Most unions have their base in the 
shrinking pool of regularly employed workers, who are then divided 
along political, regional, communal and even caste lines. Some unions 
are centred on individuals.

Building industry-based unity in one company across the globe is 
challenging, as a worker in one part is pitted against the other. 
Chandra, an activist, said that it was a problem to reassure US 
citizens that their jobs have not been stolen by Indians, and that 
globalisation is responsible for off-shoring.

Benedicto Martinez, from Frente Autentic del Trabajo (Mexico) 
believed, "The only way to pressurise trans-national corporations is 
to organise ourselves on a global scale."

Ashim Roy stressed on the trade union movement needing to imbibe a 
sense of equality, and to address social divisions such as race, 
gender and caste.

Market-led globalisation is increasingly placing the state against 
labour while it protects the privileges of capital. Labour is 
struggling in the face of labour flexibility, plant closures, 
lock-outs, de-centring production, outsourcing and off-shoring. This 
is happening across the world, asserted Sarnapalla D'Silva of the 
United Federation of Labour, Sri Lanka.

Welcoming the initiative, DL Sachdeva, Secretary, All India Trade 
Union Congress (AITUC) said, "We should respond positively to the 
appeal given by AITUC (as the oldest central trade union in India) 
and NTUI, in the recently held NTUI foundation conference in Delhi, 
to other central trade unions and independent organisations to build 
broader working class unity and to come on one platform."
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