VH Updated April 2010
VH: All the Workers Reinstated (An update from Hamara Manch on 26/04/10)
Today afternoon the six remaining employees of the VH, who had lost their jobs on 1st April, have been given their appointment letters in writing; the contractor has asked time till 1st May to actually put them back on the job, it seems he needs a couple of days to shift those whom he had employed fresh in place of these 16 people.
It appears that the unity of the VH workers and the solidarity of the community along with the militant stand of karmchari sangathan seemed to have done the trick so far.
The day before (24th) notices were put up all over the campus that karmchari sangathan along with hamara manch will undertake an agitation beginning 27th. Karmchari sangathan had also given a letter to this effect to the director.
Yesterday VH authorities and the contractor got in touch with the KS office bearers and promised that the letter will be issued by 12.00 noon today to these 6 workers.
In our meeting yesterday evening around 120 people cutting across various sets of workers and community – VH, construction, dhobis, thelawala, electrician, mess, telephones, sanitation, karmcharis, samiti, students, faculty, etc. were present to show their solidarity and discuss further course of action for almost three hours.
Perhaps now is the time to think how the VH contract can be run properly with everyone’s cooperation and look beyond the present confrontation; also the time to think of further course of action to prevent these kind of incidents. We will discuss it in Hamara munch meetings and keep you posted.
From Hamara Manch we thank all of you for your solidarity, please pass this to all those who are concerned but not part of this list.
VH Update 20/04/10 (An update from Hamara Manch on 20/04/10)
First the good news 10 people have been taken back in the VH. They started working from today (20/04/10). They have not been given any designations yet and have been told that they would be ‘observed’ till the end of the month and given proper posts next month. Almost all of them are doing the kind of work that they were doing earlier.
Now the details:
The workers assembled at the VH at 8.45 on Monday too (19/04) making it the fourth day in a row. Since last Friday they have been asked to report for work everyday but under some pretext or the other the contractor (perhaps under the influence of the VH management) have been postponing it. The workers would wait for the whole day and then would be told to report back the next day.
Yesterday though, after a couple of hours, one of the colleagues of the laid off workers who is still working in the VH, hauled up the contractor’s men for the indignity of his colleagues who have been waiting in the sun for the last several days and demanded to know why were they being treated so shabbily.
At this the contractor’s men conceded, but said that they would need to interview them again. This was the limit; the workers refused to be submitted to another round of interview even if it meant loosing their job for good.
By this time the Karmchari Sangathan representatives (who have been putting enormous pressure on the issue) had gone and met the DD. And there was a call from the DD’s office to the contractor’s men. This prompted them to action and 10 people were taken back.
The contractor still refuses to accommodate the remaining six. But the KS officials have been categorically assured by the DD that all the 16 would be accommodated in the VH. Let’s see.
Other details
The laid off workers had faxed their complaint to the Director on the 3rd of April (completely their decision). It seems the director has asked the VH authorities to brief him on the issue.
The VH management committee – including the VH Incharge and the managers in the VH are extremely miffed about this development. They are pointedly ignoring these set of workers.
Further, the one of the VH managers was heard saying to somebody rather audibly that ‘we will throw these unionizing workers one by one now’
The battle is still on now as one can see. Though for the time being there appears to be a minor victory. Let’s see. We need to keep in touch and keep the vigilance on.