Militant Unionism to the fore

Let me begin by stating my simple belief: Incompetence has been institutionalized in India.

Now all it takes is the pusillanimity of the Government and the militant, socialist mindset of the unions to keep it that way. This was the case with Honda in Haryana, which saw protests and violence by some disgruntled employees aided by unscrupulous politicians.

Similarly, the Toyota factory was shut down for a few days after their trade union, left backed obviously, created a ruckus over their firing of three employees who had had a bad track record and were disruptive to the normal operations of the plant. Such inflexibility in our labour laws is the result of this militant mindset that most employee unions have in this country. They have been used to doing half the work but taking in the full salary, and any forward looking entrepreneur looking to change that is an enemy in their eyes.

There are numerous examples of successful disinvestment efforts, such as CMC and a few others, where employee salaries have gone up manyfold, the company has turned around and doing extremely well. But the important ingredient to achieve that success is willing and hardworking employees. AAI is one of those mammoth organizations whose employees fall in the former category, lackadaisical, incompetent and absolutely blinded by the current anti-national assault by the left.

Is it a surprise that the only airport in India to report major disruptions to traffic was Kolkata Airport? It was expected that the state government in that state would abet the union strikers, and they did by preventing the Air Force fire tenders from reaching the ATC towers. For those not in the know, one of the fundamental requirements for ATC towers under ICAO rules is that they must function only when there are fire services available. Expectedly, the union members prevented the IAF tenders from doing so and caused delay in the airport because the ATC could not function for that time period.

I came across an interesting blog posted by forumers in SSC and BR, that of Gaurav Sabnis. Gaurav talked to a striking employee in Mumbai, and it was interesting to read the other side of the story. Shockingly, the employee said most of them didnt want to be in the strike, but were forced to by the union leaders. The AAI employee's name is Peter.

http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2006/02/from-strikers-pov.html

To assure and console him I said the usual comforting things "everything will be ok" etc. To which I am surprised at his reaction. He says -

"I know everything will be OK in the long run. Everyone knows that the airline sector is doing well and there will be no job problems. My worry is for the short term. There is intense pressure on us to do something."

"The Union leaders are hell bent on making a big issue out of this. And since yesterday's strike didn't cause any major issues, they want a bigger and more newsworthy demonstration of our protest."

He looks at me worriedly, and asks me "Maybe you would have been too young at that time, but do you remember Rajiv Goswami?"

Of course. Who doesn't know Rajiv Goswami? The student who set himself ablaze during the Mandal demonstrations. the incident which shot the whole controversy to the front pages. Was there pressure on AAI employees to immolate themselves?

He said that most of the striking workers, including him, have no interest in striking. But Workers Unions don't work on a participatory basis. It is the union leaders who call the shots. They just come with a decision already made, mostly sent from Delhi, that there should be a strike.

There have apparently been a lot of general meetings called by the airport officials, and even people from the ministry to talk to employees and assure them that privatisation won't lead to job losses. And all those who are working properly at the airport know that their jobs are safe, regardless of such assurances. After all, Peter says, with capacity expansion, there will be more terminals, more gates, more counters, and people will be needed for it.

He smiled, as if at my "innocence" and said "Because if I don't take part in the strike, I will be beaten up. And I know that this will be just a small token strike for 1 or 2 days for the union leaders' benefit. After that, everything will be normal. So I don't want to take unnecessary panga against these 'gundas'. I will go there, be part of the protesting crowd, make sure I am standing far away from the police and the union leaders, so that I am not used as a weapon."

"Yes, a friend who works with me told me this yesterday. If a strike is really just 'peaceful', then it serves no purpose of the union leaders. What happened yesterday was, we were on strike, but planes were flying properly. So one union leader forced a group of people to follow him, and unnecessarily attacked the police. The police were shouting, don't come near, don't come near, but yet these people were forced to. Then the police counter charged. And it becomes a head-line."

Peter told me how the men who actually provoke the policemen, smartly escape, leaving innocent workers to bear the brunt of the police rage. How it is all set up after ensuring that the media's cameras are trained on them.

What next in the short term. Have the puppet-masters of the Union leaders had their share of the emdia frenzy? If so, then they will go away, let the airport workers get on with their lives in peace. If not, and if they want to derive more mileage out of this, then a bigger and more extreme demonstration will be on cards. An immolation, a bigger police attack, or something.

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An absolutely shameful state of affairs, this. Not surprisingly, the media is the most gullible of all propaganda tools, even for a free country as ours. Violence and sensationalism sells, and they have been lapping this strike up. It took a common man's blog to bring the truth out, but I doubt any of the news channels who spend hours chronicling the road blocks and lathi charge, will have it in them to take this theme mainstream. I hope they prove me wrong.