May Day Brings Good News for Protesting Workers of Chennai Metro

Chennai: The celebration on May 1 (Labour Day) was capped with victory for protesting metro rail workers of Chennai. The management of the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) accepted in writing to consider their demand to reinstate the dismissed workers. The union had been on an indefinite strike for more than 48 hours following the dismissal of eight workers, out of which seven are office bearers of the union.

The union had written to the management against contractualisation of  work following which the office bearers were suspended in December 2018. The second round of reconciliatory talks, after the employees resorted to indefinite strike took place on May 1, at the Deputy Commissioner of Labour’s office in Chennai which yielded the desired result for the employees.

The reconciliation meeting was attended by the officials of the Labour Department, office bearers of the employees union and the representative of CMRL. The letter of advice was signed by the Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Chennai.

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The employees had been conducting various demonstrations against the management’s decision to suspend the office bearers of the union and contractualisation of work without any disturbance to the operation and no loss was incurred due to the demonstrations of the employees. While the workers were involved in peaceful agitations, the management prohibited them from wearing black bands as part of their agitation.

Elango, Vice President of CMRL Employees Union, said, “The CMRL management has always curbed the rights of the employees. The basic rights were denied for long and after the union was formed the employees started to fight back and even protested against the contractualisation of work in a peaceful manner. The management suspended the office bearers and when the matter went to court, the employees were dismissed from service”.

The recent contractualisation of work and the autocratic functioning of various managements, even of the public sector undertakings (PSU) have resulted in victimisation of workers for forming a union to demand their rights.

He also said, “The management has agreed to not take any steps to victimise workers and has asked the dismissed workers to write to the Managing Director of CMRL to revoke the dismissal order. While the workers who have rejoined have been given attendance, they are yet to be asked to resume their duties”.

This victory of the CMRL employees have raised the hopes of the working class, since they are the ones who have borne the brunt of inhumane actions in the name of neo-liberal policies and labour reforms. The policies of the successive union governments and the current Narendra Modi regime in particular, have been on the forefront of curbing labour rights.

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