THE national convention of railway contract workers held at Visakhapatnam on February 25, 2022 called upon the railway contract workers to organise and develop a strong countrywide movement to fight for the rights of the railway contract workers.
The convention, which was initially scheduled to be held in the end of January this year, had to be deferred due to the third wave of Covid pandemic. 157 railway contract workers and union activists from nine states – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal participated in the conference. They represented different categories of railway contract workers including those working in track maintenance, catering, workshops, coach and station cleaning, bed roll service, goods sheds loading unloading, parcel offices, rail neer production, watering etc. Women railway contract workers also attended the convention in considerable numbers.
Basudev Acharia, convenor of the national coordination committee of railway contract workers hoisted the CITU flag and presided over the convention. V Uma Maheswara Rao, chairman of the reception committee, welcomed the delegates.
Hemalata, president, CITU, placed the report. The report said that since the advent of neoliberal policies in the country, railways under successive governments have been outsourcing and awarding contracts for perennial nature of works like maintenance of stations, coaches, colonies, workshop activities, loading/unloading of running staff boxes, supply of bed rolls, maintenance of AC units, railway track related works, catering and allied works. Lakhs of contract workers employed in these jobs are highly exploited by the contractors. They do not have job security. They are not paid equal wages as the permanent workers doing the same job; they are not even paid the stipulated minimum wages. They are deprived of PF and ESI. Women workers do not get paid maternity leave. Mandatory and basic facilities like drinking water, safe working environment, wash rooms, rest rooms etc are not provided. Workers are victimised whenever they try to organise.
The Modi led BJP government has hastened the process of privatisation including privatisation of the railways. It is going ahead with implementation of the National Monetisation Pipeline, under which railway stations, tracks, freight corridors, goods sheds, railway colonies, stadia etc will be handed over to big corporates. This will impose huge burden on the common people, particularly the poor and also adversely affect the jobs and working conditions of the workers. The government has also decided to corporatise the production units of railways that produce diesel and electric locomotives, coaches etc.
Permanent posts are being abolished. Lakhs of posts in the railways including in safety related departments like signalling, track maintenance etc are kept vacant. The contract workers who are doing these jobs are not being regularised. The report emphasised the need to fight against these policies also while fighting on the day to day demands of the railway contract workers.
Delegates from all states and categories present spoke in the convention and totally supported the charter of demands and tasks proposed, after which the report was unanimously adopted.
AK Padmanabhan, vice president of CITU placed a resolution supporting the General Strike on March 28-29, 2022 called by the joint platform of central trade unions and independent sectoral federations. The convention unanimously adopted the resolution and decided to campaign for the general strike among the railway contract workers and mobilise them in support of the strike across the country.
A 33 member national coordination committee of railway contract workers was formed in the convention, with D Ramesh Babu from Maharashtra as the convenor.
In his concluding address Basudev Acharia emphasised the need to organise the railway contract workers across the country and develop a strong movement on their demands and also against the anti-worker anti-national policies, including privatisation of railways.
D Ramesh Babu proposed the vote of thanks and particularly thanked the Visakhapatnam district and Andhra Pradesh state committees of CITU and the Andhra Pradesh Railway Contract Workers’ Union for hosting the convention.
