NEW DELHI: RSS-affiliated trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and Congress-linked Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) have expressed willingness to join hands for the larger cause of labour, but have failed to bridge their political differences.While inviting the BMS to join the just concluded Save India Day agitation, INTUC president G Sanjeeva Reddy wrote to BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay, appreciating the latter for raising labour issues in different sectors and opposing privatisation.In his response, Upadhyay wrote: “It’s a matter of great pleasure that you have invited BMS to be part of nationwide agitation. We assure that BMS will stand up to the cause of workers under all circumstances without politicising the issue, standing true to our non-political nature and policy of responsive co-operation.”However, the two leading unions stuck to their political lines and could not find any common ground for unity. “Trade union unity is always welcome and politics shouldn’t divide us,” Saji Narayan, BMS president told ET. “The objective of BMS is Worker Bachao. Their’s is Modi Hatao. Besides they don’t raise a question when working hours are increased in Congress-rules Punjab and Rajasthan. Similarly Left party unions also keep silence on labour issues in Kerala,’ Narayan said.Narayan says that BMS raises issues against any government no matter who is in power without any political objectives.INTUC denies politics in their agenda and claims that they have organised protests against UPA rule too.
“They shouldn’t not look at the politics. They should look at the issues. You may like or dislike the politics, there are issues where everyone can come together,” G Sanjeeva Reddy, INTUC president, told ET. “Privatisation of industries is against workers and we all are passing through a difficult situation. So, it is in the workers interest that we should come together.”It is important to note that both the unions along with others are working in full cooperation in different sectors. “Already, there is a joint trade union movement on sectoral issues. Be it defence, banking, coal or airport authority, all the unions are agitating together. The objective there is not to do politics but get justice for workers,” adds Naraynan.
