Haryana under Hooda govt. is making a determined bid to woo the corporate sector especially the MNCs. Already in Gurgaon, the Rajasthan Border area at Maneswar is occupied by major MNCs mainly of automobile sector. These MNCs and big corporates suck the labour of skilled young workers of India and consider themselves above the law of the land. Statutory labour laws are violated leave alone trade union rights or even basic democratic rights; this is more so true for the large army of contract or temporary workers they employ. In this they have the full and willing cooperation of the Cong. Govts at Centre and state as well as of the local administration and labour machinery.

Few would have forgotten the police repression let loose on workers of Honda situated in this area, when they demanded that the Govt. protect their right to form trade union and took out a rally against illegal retrenchments. In the UPA dispensation where Congress is ‘secular’, CPM welcomes imperialist money that is not ‘against sovereignty’ (Certain Pol. Question, 13th Congress CPM) and CPI tags along, the AITUC union failed to lead a fight back against Hooda Govt. It catapulted the workers through local social leaders into the arms of ‘secular’ congress. Thus the workers went back to work with 60 criminal cases intact, individual written commitments of good behaviour, and other punitive actions.

The emboldened Hooda is now on a virtual signing spree, writing off the land of Haryana. The entire Maneswar area will now be converted into a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and Mukesh Ambani of Reliance has signed a deal to make a SEZ bigger than Shanghai in Haryana. Land has been acquired from peasantry in Gurgaon for  Ambani in what is supposed to be a major scandal. Faridabad Industrial area will acquire SEZ status and a Japan City is also to be set up.

Why SEZs, and especially, why are industrial areas to be converted to SEZs? Why are central trade unions present here not objecting and why the SEZ Act was allowed to be passed in parliament? The chief attempt is to water down labour laws eventually in the name of flexibility. This is something Manmohan Singh repeatedly talks about while Hooda exhibits to both workers and managements that even if no changes are passed, he will physically beat out the aspirations of workers to get laws implemented. Leave aside Gurgaon and several smaller cases, recently 3000 workers of Liberty situated near Karnal were repeatedly lathicharged and several rounds were fired in the air to disperse them. Workers’ leaders were earlier accused by the management of beating up a manager and on the concerned morning, police arrested several leaders from their homes. Workers had blocked the highway demanding their release.

Panipat textile workers

In the context of this entire situation the struggle under IFTU of various sections of textile workers in the old industrial city of Panipat takes on significance. The city has a total of over a lakh textile workers distributed in pit loom industry, power loom industry including blanket workers and bed sheet workers, dyeing industry, thread workers, spinning mill workers etc. Power loom workers being both skilled and from nearby states  are generally better off as far as wages are concerned. The 20,000 pit loom workers are migrants, mostly of minorities, come from far off states,  live in ghettos on industrial premises and were virtual bonded labour. None of the sections get statutory facilities of minimum wage, ESI, and of course not such ‘fancy’ items like an 8 hour working day, pay slip, weekly off or attendance registers. In mid 2005, the 20,000 blanket workers, dissatisfied with an agreement entered into by five central unions (CITU, AITUC, BMS, INTUC, HMS), fought for its modification under IFTU leadership and got the order changed after several huge rallies of 8-10,000 workers, dharnas, and finally indefinite strike.

Following this, immediately the 20,000 pit loom workers grouped under IFTU banner demanding freedom from bondage and implementation of statutory rights. With the DC of Panipat declaring in writing that the workers were ‘not bonded’ because ‘their hands and feet were not tied’, the struggle of the workers including strike struggle was intensified. Finally tripartite agreement for functional freedom was reached. In the course of this agitation the Central Labour Commissioner (Haryana) came out with the declaration that piece rated workers were not entitled to minimum wage! Other features of this agitation were large rallies of over 8000 workmen, physical attacks of owners on the workers, a three day strike by owners demanding arrest of IFTU leader PP Kapoor, false cases u/s 307 registered against pit loom leading workers and IFTU leaders and physical attacks on another IFTU leader Sant Ram. Despite these attempts to suppress the struggle, fully abetted by Hooda Govt., the agreement was signed which at least brought the issue of statutory rights to life on paper. The pit loom sector is 100% export oriented with few big owners who subcontract to hundreds of smaller owners who in turn try to derive maximum profits by bleeding the workers.

Subsequently bedsheet section of power loom workers also joined IFTU struggle to get statutory laws implemented. On 7th June ’06 the Labour Minister of Haryana was scheduled to visit Panipat. As the administration was dragging its feet on the implementation of any labour laws, IFTU decided to present a memorandum to the Minister. However when the workers began gathering in Kabuli Masjid lawns, police, which had also been mobilized from surrounding districts, began a lathicharge and also arrested three leaders including Com. Sant Ram. Workers held their ground, with even greater numbers amassing holding IFTU flags. Police then fired seven rounds in the air, but the workers began to advance along the rally route. Finally the police released the arrested leaders, and allowed the rally to proceed. By then the Minister had abandoned his programme and the IFTU delegation was met by the DC who assured an early meeting with the Minister. The Haryana Labour Minister meanwhile, went to Gurgaon, where in a public address he said that most of the labour laws were outdated but as they were Central Laws the state govt. could not change them.

On 4th July, IFTU again gave a call for strike as the demands for registration of all units, implementation of 8-hour day, ESI, and weekly off were yet not implemented despite flying squads of the Labour Dept. being brought to the city. Rather owners began erecting walls inside factories pretending that each portion was a separate factory. This was to evade ESI –PF laws. On 3rd July the SDM signed an agreement with IFTU for implementation of these issues within a week, so the strike was deferred. On 10th July, 15,000 workers held a strike pressing for implementation of above issues.

Rather than implementing the labour laws, administration again provoked the owners to hold a strike on 11th July against IFTU. IFTU has accused the Govt. of Hooda of deliberating creating a situation of propping up owners against IFTU to remove the focus from failure of administration to implement even an 8 hour working day or even ESI for power loom workers who are so prone to hand injuries.