KOLKATA, 12th February, 2010: The Bengal-wide one-day strike of casual and thika workers has been a grand success. The strike was a CITU workers’ action on a big scale. Months back preparations had started in the way of propaganda and campaign among the unorganised workers who comprise close to 90% of the total work force.CITU Bengal general secretary Kali Ghosh clearly stated during the campaign that both the state sector (in the guise of central government institutions) and the private sector, especially the MNCs routinely continued to flout the contract labour act which stated inter alia that marks out the advantages of continuing employment of contractual work force, especially at the time of renewal of contract.
The entire informal sector struck work in Bengal. The bourgeois media propaganda notwithstanding a successful strike was seen in the IT sector, the BSNL, the VSNL. Mobile tower employment sector, banks, ATMs, petrochemical, power, steel, coal, and in the myriads of state and central government departments and branches, both in the urban areas and in the mufussil struck work during the hours as applicable.
The principal demand of the CITU is that perennial employment must be ensured for jobs of a perennial nature. Until such permanence is set in, the casual workers must be provided with employment benefits due to permanent workers. Another demand of course is the long-standing on of equal pay for equal work.
Kali Ghosh has assured that if the management fails to implement the contract labour act properly, the CITU will go in for bigger movements and struggles in the days to come.
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