ICF Chennai Workers’ Union Protest Against Privatisation Move of the Union Govt

The workers of Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Perambur near Chennai held a massive procession and demonstration today against the Union government’s move to privatise the production units of the Indian Railways. The ICF Joint Action Council (JAC), comprising of all the trade unions in the ICF had called for the demonstration. The workers carried black flags to register their opposition to the move of the Union government.

The Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has charted out plans to invite private players to carry out the operations of the Indian Railways and its operative units in the name of development and infusing more funds for infrastructural development. 

The decision of the BJP government to fast-track the privatisation of Indian Railways – the cheapest mode of transportation – is set to economically burden the common man to benefit the corporate companies. The Modi government has been fast-tracking the move to privatise Indian railways as soon as it assumed office for the second term.

The workers are also set to be exploited by the private players as like in any other industries. The issues of labour rights, minimum wages and many others are being heard almost every day. The safety of the passengers would also be under stake.

P Rajaraman, general secretary, ICF United Workers’ Union affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) told NewsClick, “The Union government has proposed a very dangerous move of opening the Indian Railways to the corporate companies. Such a move will burden the common public for the services they use in the railways. The giant corporate companies are interested in looting the public money to make huge profits and they have no intention to serve the people. The initial move of the BJP government to scrap the railway budget was the first step towards privatisation, even then the trade unions opposed to merge the railway budget with the general budget”.

He also added, “The move to permit the private players to operate trains is another way of destroying the Indian Railways. We are afraid that the profit-making routes would be allocated to the private companies so that they get the large part of the revenue, leaving the railways to depend on the union government for money for operations. This will lead to severe crisis similar to the one the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is facing now. We don’t understand why the government is so keen on finishing off the PSUs and promote the private companies”.

The JAC also alleged that the privatisation move will affect the employees who have crossed the age of 55 or those who have completed 30 years of service. This would effectively reduce the strength of the employees by 50%. The status of schools and hospitals run by the Indian Railways will also be under threat. The JAC also alleged that the government’s decision to appoint retired personnel to 1 lakh existing vacancies is a clear plan to terminate them as and when the requirement arises. The move too is made keeping the privatisation in mind.

The workers of Modern Coach Factory (MCF) in Rae Bareli and the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) in Varanasi have started their agitation against the move to corporatise these units.

The government has decided already to close down the printing presses by March 31, 2020 run by the Indian Railways for more than a century. These presses were printing tickets, time tables and maps to the railways. The decision taken in 2017 was delayed due to severe opposition from the labour unions. These printing works are being outsourced to Reserve Bank and the Indian Banks Association.

The continuous and fast steps taken by the BJP government has sent dangerous signals to both the employees of the railways and the general public, as the privatisation move is bound to equally affect them. The decisions including the invitation of private companies to take part in the auctioning of 23 railway stations across the country is set to exploit the public in the name of better services.