CITU-led Left trade unions defer West Bengal bandh

CITU-led Left trade unions defer West Bengal bandh
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

CALCUTTA, DEC 18: The CITU-led 26 left trade union organisations have deferred the proposed state-wide general strike called on the 20th of this month in protest against the Centre's ``discriminatory attitude'' towards the state on the flood relief issue.

The decision to postpone the strike was announced here this afternoon by the state CITU General Secretary Chittabrata Mazumdar. ``The decision was taken in view of the Centre's assurance that in the current session, Parliament would take a decision on National Fund on Calamity and the agriculture ministry would make a fresh assessment of damages of pre-Pooja floods in nine districts of the state,'' he told reporters.

``We have decided to defer it and will wait and watch how the Centre behaves on the promises it had made to our Finance Minister,'' Mazumdar said.

However, it is widely believed that both, the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which backed the strike, and the Left trade unions, used the Centre's assurance as an excuse to defer the strike. Political observers say state government leaders have influenced the CITU decision.

Desperately looking for investments from outside and expansion of trade and commerce in the state in a run up to the Assembly elections, a section within the CPI(M) leadership seems to have prevailed on the CITU, the CPI(M)'s trade union wing and other related unions, to put off the strike.

The decision also reflects the widening cleavage between the CPI(M)-led Left Front government and Left trade unions whom the former has been urging to play a more positive role for some time now. The government recently decided to go ahead with plans to hand over the ailing Great Eastern Hotel to a French hotel chain notwithstanding CITU's resistence.

Admitting differences on the issue with the state government, Mazumdar said that ``When the state government speaks, it would have its own reasons which need not always be ours.''

Reacting to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's statement that the LF Government will not tolerate militant trade unionism, he, ``We don't know the instances of militant trade unionism. You should ask the chief minister what he meant.''

Instead, he claimed, that the workers are facing the problem of ``militant management. There are instances where workers are exploited and not paid their due, like salaries, without protest for months.''

Incidentally, a PIL filed in the Calcutta High Court, challenging the state government's decision to back the strike was disposed of after hearing its submission that the strike was deferred. The PIL was filed by state BJP vice-president Muzaffer Khan.