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Kerala floods: Fisherfolk to the rescue
As floods continue to ravage the entire state of Kerala leaving thousands stranded in harm’s way, the fishermen have joined rescue efforts. KSMTF, the fishworkers union in Kerala has mobilised its members and deployed them in coordinated teams with team leaders to different flood-affected regions. Equipped with manoeuvrable fibre boats with a draft of about 1 foot, they are able to reach inaccessible areas to rescue stranded people. Their team leaders coordinate with the state rescue teams. The boats are also provisioned with water, safety equipment and fuel which have been collected by the fishing community. Speaking to the media, the fishermen maintain that they are showing the gratitude for the support they received in the aftermath of cyclone Ockhi that claimed many lives of fishermen and devastated coastal regions. The National Fishworkers Federation has also given a call to fishers from neighbouring states to support the rescue and relief efforts.
Illustration by Aliza Bakht
HC notice to TN government on the percentage of apprentices in mills
Referring to how the apprentice scheme was being abused, the High Court has recommended that the government “reduce the period of apprenticeship from three years and fix the ratio of apprentices not exceeding 20 per cent of the total workforce.” This is because, in some skills, apprentices made up 100% of the entire workforce. This disproportionately affected young women. The petitioner submitted that “On expiry of three years, the adolescent women apprentices, who are paid meagre wages as a stipend under schemes like ‘Sumangali Scheme’ and ‘Thirumana Udavi Thittam’, are not retained in service and the mill owners would engage another set of apprentices.”
Garment factory workers fall sick after drinking ‘contaminated’ water
The New Indian Express reports that more than 50 workers fell sick after drinking contaminated water at their place of employment, the Wonder Blues factory in Karnataka. There are more than 1200 workers in that particular factory who were at risk, though many of them bring water from their homes. This was not the first case of poisoning reported this year in Karnataka as “in May this year, 270 women were affected by water contamination at Silver Crest Clothing Factory in Sarjapur”. The question of whether management has a responsibility to provide minimum facilities like clean drinking water shouldn’t have to be discussed. It’s unclear whether there will be any repercussions against the company and whether workers will be compensated for the neglect because of which they’ve suffered.
Delhi: As many as 2,403 sanitation workers died before reaching the age of retirement in last 5 years
Data collected from the Delhi municipal corporations shows that a significant percentage of workers died before they reached retirement age. The Indian Express reports that “The North corporation reported the most deaths, at 1,181. The South body saw 877 deaths, while 345 employees of the east body died before turning 60.” This is out of 32,000 workers in the North, 14,000 in the East and 20,000 in the South. While it’s not proven whether this is an occupational safety issue, just this data should warrant paying closer attention to these workers but as has been shown time and time again, the local governments do not care. They can hardly manage to pay them their salary dues on time. As a country, we are far away from having local governments that care about those who keep our cities clean.
For example, in Sonepur in Odisha this week, sanitation workers have been forced to go on strike to resolve an EPF issue they face. Here the workers aren’t employed by the government but by a private contractor. Even after five days of the strike, the city reels under the mounting piles of garbage. The treatment of solid waste management as something that can be outsourced rather than a vital municipal function has led to this problem. This has to be one of the government’s priorities along with the treatment of the workers who perform this role.
Updates and other news
Hospital for bidi workers in shambles
The Telegraph reports on how an eighteen-year-old hospital in West Bengal has fallen into disrepair after being abandoned by staff and the government. The Tarapur Central Memorial Hospital was meant for “Bidi workers and their families were able to avail treatment free-of-cost against their identity cards issued by the ministry of labour and employment.”
Contract workers at Bangalore water board on protest for minimum wage
Hundreds of angry workers of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) protested outside the Labour Department office on Bannerghatta Road on Monday and threatened to sit on an indefinite strike. The workers, mostly affiliated to the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), demanded minimum wages, equal pay for equal work and regularisation of their services by ending the contract system. Protestors met with the Labour Commissioner and succeeded in making him issue a notice to the BWSSB.
As with the sanitation workers in Bangalore municipality, the issues faced by the contract workers of the water supply and sewerage board is the issue of lower wages paid by the contractors. The workers argue that while those employed by the board directly get paid higher wages, those employed through contractors only get Rs. 6,000 to 7,000 which is much lower than even the mandated minimum wage. Claiming that they have right to the parity of pay with the board employed workers, they have raised an industrial dispute with the labour commissioner. Their case was posted for hearing with the conciliation officer on August 17.
Two workers buried alive at Gangavaram port in Vizag
Two workers, overseeing loading and unloading activities at the Gangavaram port in Vizag were killed when a heap of coal, offloaded earlier, slipped and buried them alive. Heavy equipment was called in to rescue them but they were declared dead at the hospital. According to the police, the mishap occurred when a new ship called into port for unloading cargo near a place where coal from a previous ship had just been offloaded. One of the deceased workers was a contract employee. The mishap only reveals the gaps in safety protocols in high-risk operations.
TN domestic workers’ minimum wage not adequate
The Tamil Nadu government recently notified the minimum wage for domestic workers after a long drawn out process. The wages, which works to Rs. 8,500 for unskilled domestic workers in major cities, has fallen short of expectation. Here is an article from the president of Penn Thozhillalar Sangam on their criticism against the quantum, method of estimation and the process of formulating the minimum wage
International news
Security guards fight for a living wage against Silicon Valley behemoths
The IT revolution transformed the way the world works. In that process, it has also created a slew of individuals who have, some literally, skyrocketed to wealth. Yet at the bottom of the pyramid, we find workers who have a hard time making ends meet even after double shifts or multiple jobs. This article in Gizmodo is about the security guards who protect the tech giants in California. While the median income in these establishments hovers in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the security staff make less than $35,000 per annum, while having to find housing, health care and food in some of the costliest regions. This article chronicles their struggle for a better wage, their attempts to unionise and their call for the tech workers in these companies to support their rights.
Thriving industry and starving workers: The case of Bangladesh’s garment sector
The garment and apparel industry has come to reflect with clarity the effects of free trade policies on the third world economies and its workers. While the broad logic of free trade argues that maximising competitive advantages will help increase employment and thus improve living standards, it seldom plays out in such a linear fashion. As the economies of the third world profit from the increase in trade, the benefits are often distributed unequally. The business owners, using the new wealth, increase their stranglehold on the political process. When the workers organise to stake a claim to the fruits of toil, they face the wrath of the state. In a descriptive narrative, this article in Groundxerotraces this process in the garment sector in Bangladesh where the workers fighting for a nominal minimum wage and working conditions that don’t kill them face the brute force of the state even when the parliament is occupied by many legislators who are also garment factory owners. It also details the steady gains that organised labour has made, in spite of a well-developed nexus between the political elite and crony capitalists, while highlighting the challenges ahead.
Tunisian dock workers enforce a ban on Israeli maritime trade
Dock workers in the Tunisian port of Rades forced a cargo ship from docking in the port as it was chartered by an Israeli company. It came about as a result of a coordinated effort between Palestinian unions and unions in Tunisia. The dock workers, who are part of the major labour federation in Tunisia, UGTT, warned the dock officials of a strike if the ship was given berth at the port. This forced the ship to move out of Tunisia without unloading its cargo.
The ship, Cornelius A, is a Turkish registered ship. However, Zim, the company that chartered the ship, is an Israeli company known to employ ships of other countries to bypass trade boycotts. With vigilance and coordination, the dock workers were able to prevent the ship from unloading Israeli merchandise.
Tunisia is part of African and Arab countries that maintain a formal but unenforced boycott of Israel for its continued ‘occupation’ of Palestine and for the human rights violations. While the Arab boycott was forcefully enforced in the 1970s, it has been tacitly withdrawn by these governments over the decades due to pressure from western democracies as well as the need to profit from the economic opportunities. There are also calls from political elites in these countries to normalise relations with Israel, at a time when segregation by Israel is allegedly intensifying. Thus, the enforcing of the boycott falls upon the citizens rather than the state. This incident is a clear illustration that not only does the organised working class have the ability to enforce the boycott, they also have the moral value to penalise a powerful nation for its violations of international law.