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A CLASSIC CLASS STRUGGLE

Radha Iyer
The tolerance of the Telco workers suddenly gave way. The storm broke and within
months the workforce, the management and the entire city of Pune were engulfed by
this storm. Some attributed the cause to workers' leaders like Rajan Nair, others to
Telco officials like Mehrunkar. The genesis of the phenomena however lay in the
history of industrial relations in Telco over nearly fifteen years.
Pune was one of the first industrial centres to be established pursuant to the policy
of geographic relocation of industries away from established industrial centres in the
early sixties. During the sixties a number of large engineering companies set up
new industries in the Pune region. Being predominantly engineering industries, the
region attracted a large number of skilled workers from all over Maharashtra. This
workforce was young, skilled, educated (being from technical training institutes such
as ITI and private institutes); and there was a broad cultural homogeneity since
most of them were Marathi-speaking. Pune city, though not an industrial city to the
sixties, has well established traditions of trade unionism amongst the municipal
workers, the teachers and staff of other governmental bodies. Above all traditionally
the workers in the engineering industry are known to be more militant and better
organized. Basically this has to do with the nature of the work in the engineering
industry, where man is invariably the master of the machine. Engineering jobs
require knowledge, perception, judgment, use of discretion and higher intellectual
abilities, all of which results in a self-confident and assertive workforce. Added to all
this is the fact that the new workers coming to Pune had to find residential quarters
on the outskirts of Pune. The suburban districts of Pune grew into working class
areas. Both better paid any badly paid workers' settlements grew within the same
localities, leading to extensive social integration of the workforce. All this gave rise
to strong traditions of unity, solidarity and class sentiments in the most classical
sense of the term. While the other industrial centres were plagued by trade union
rivalries, political dissensions, and conflicts founded on caste, region and language
Pune developed a tradition of class solidarity. In 1980, when the police fired on the
workers of Bajaj Auto, almost immediately the other factories closed in support, and
a joint action committee was formed. Thereafter on most major events, `ad hoc'
trade union joint action committees have cropped up. With the numerical strength of
workers in Pune increasing - today the city has 1.75 to 2 lakh industrial workers and,
together with their families, they constitute 45-50 per cent of Pune's population these traditions were reinforced in strength and impact.
The companies that came up in Pune region too developed a broad unified
approach to their industrial relations problems. This was facilitated by a number of
factors. In the first place they too like the workers were concentrated in one area.
Besides, very few companies were in mutual competition with one another. Many of
them were keen to avoid the problems they had to confront in the older industrial
centres like Bombay. One of the first things that almost every major company in the
Pune region did right from the beginning was to ensure that no outsider, i.e.

- 2 professional trade unionist, established himself in Pune. These companies were

established at a time when the fact of trade unionism as an inevitable aspect of
industrial life had come to be accepted. In the Pune region formation of trade
unions per se never led to any major strife. The companies on the contrary
encouraged their nascent workforce to form internal company unions. Barring a few
exceptions the major pattern of trade union organization in the region is of internal
unions with the workers themselves acting as office-bearers. In the mid-eighties
Datta Samant from Bombay attempted a break-through but did not succeed. In a
few companies unions affiliated to the Shiv Sena and BJP tried to establish their
unions but could not make any major headway.
Against this backdrop, Telco is an omni-present giant in the Pune region. spread
read over a vast area, it employs, 8,500 blue collar workers, around 1,000 to 1,100
white collar workers, 2,000 supervisory staff and 2,500 engineers and officers. The
average age of a Telco worker is 32 years. Besides this a large number of
ancillaries around Pune depend basically on Telco for their survival. It has been
impossible to estimate the extent of ancillarisation. Estimates vary from 400 units to
4,000 units. Besides, there is the consumption of goods and services by the
company. To take one or two examples - the two industrial canteens at Telco employ
450 employees. The conservancy staff number around 450. Telco runs 110 buses
on 265 routes. And all this growth has taken place over a span of 25 years.
In keeping with the general pattern of industrial relations in the region, the company
encouraged the formation of an internal trade union in their company. The new
workforce formed the Telco Kamgar Sanghatana (TKS), the very union with whom
the company is refusing to negotiate today. The TKS was formed in February 1968
and was immediately recognized by the company. The constitution of the union
provided amongst other things that the union will not have any outsider i.e., a
non-employee, as office-bearers. The elections were to be held once in every three
years. It may be pointed out here that wage agreements are normally revised once
in three years. It provided that workers would elect a council of 42 members and
these 42 would then elect the office-bearers from amongst themselves.
During this time the production in the company was growing rapidly. Normally in the
older engineering industries job classifications are precise. The content of each job
is described and evaluated, grades evolved, and quite often a worker could
lawfully decline to do job which were beyond the description or grade of his job.
Right from the beginning the company sought to avoid rigid classification of job and
to reserve for itself the absolute right to set up time standards, club jobs, change
production methods and systems and flexibility in the matter of deployment of
workforce. This was the management's exclusive domain and the management was
zealous in guarding its rights.
Throughout, the growth in productivity was as a result of increased capacity
utilization on the one hand and increase in the productivity of the workers on the
other. The increase in productivity was mainly due to intensification of the workers'
work output. Thus in 1980 the company produced 14,000 vehicles. This increased
to 30,000 vehicles in 1988 (though the targeted production was 33,000). In 1981,

- 3 40 chassis were produced in a day, today it is 125 chassis. Throughout, the

workforce remained constant. There was no major technological upgradation. The
only areas where some technical modifications were made were in fatigue -related
areas, i.e. where fatigue of the workers reached a point where he became
counter-productive. In order to facilitate this the company introduced a number of
schemes designed to make optimum use of the workforce. In 1976, the TKS and the
company jointly finalized a skill benefit scheme. Under this scheme a worker could
upgrade his skill and give required trade tests after which he would be entitled to
two increments. Thereafter a versatility benefit scheme was introduced, whereby a
workman who had learnt a new trade besides his own could after passing the
requisite tests get three increments. All this made it possible for the company to
utilize its workforce with complete flexibility after all, the company believed a worker
during his work hours was at the company's disposal to get as much production from
him as was possible. .
The internal leadership of the TKS could not perceive the impact of the company's
policies. In 1976 it consented to the skill benefit scheme. The feeling spread
amongst the workers that the union leadership was not standing up for their rights,
while the management was asserting its rights. In the 1977 TKS elections the
workers elected a new leadership which was perceived to be more militant. Under
this leadership the workers conducted their first strike which went on for 22 days.
This strike was against what is popularly described as ganging of machines and
double designations. Ganging of machine meant that a worker who was until then
required to load jobs on one machine and attend to it was now required to load one
job on one machine and immediately attend to another machine or several machines
depending on the nature of the job before returning to the first one. Double
designations meant one worker was called upon to do two jobs. While the former
method clubbed machines the latter clubbed jobs. The state government intervened
and referred the dispute for adjudication after which the strike was declared illegal.
A number of activists were dismissed and other neutralized, and yet others won
over.
The workers attributed the failure of the strike and the crushing of the TKS
leadership to the absence of strong outside leadership and support. They then
turned to the Sarva Shramik Sanghatna, a trade union affiliated to the Lal Nishan
Party. The membership of the Sarva Shramik Sanghatna was not widespread over
all shops and departments, and was concentrated in a few plants and departments.
In 1980 the workers of the foundry section began agitation. Once again this was
against work norms and methods. The company declared a lock -out of the foundry
which went on for 80 days. The Sarva Shramik Sanghatna could not succeed in
rallying other department workers in support of the foundry workers. The foundry
workers' agitation fizzled out. The workers were compelled to give an undertaking
of good conduct and report back to work. Some more activists were dismissed after
this agitation.
In order to defeat the Sarva Shramik Sanghatna, the company had to rely on the
TKS leadership amongst other things. The TKS leadership, in the absence of
over-whelming support of workers had to align with the management to defeat the

- 4 Sarva Shramik Sanghatna. In the process the TKS leadership acquired privileges
and concessions from the company that alienated them more and more from the
workers. If workers were intimidated or strong-arm methods were used within the
company premises the management looked the other way. Workers say the
company actually recruited toughs to deal with the situation. Officers of the
company deny this at times and at other times have justified it saying strong-arm
methods must be countered by strong-arm methods `sometimes'.
The company also began to focus on what it describes as its welfare activities.
Since 1981 there has been a sharp increase in industrial co-operatives of
employees formed with the active support of the company. Between 1981 and 1987
the company has helped establish nine industrial cooperatives, for various purposes
like recycling of scrap wood, conservancy, manufacturing safety shoes, printing,
computer services, felting, foundry-casting, battery cable assembly, welding, etc.
Previously such societies were limited to helping widows of deceased employees,
canteens and the like. Now it spilled over the industrial production. These
co-operatives were intended to provide employment to the dependents and family
members of the employees. The TKS leadership was the main agent for the
implementation of these schemes. They therefore acquired enormous clout over the
workers. Though out of a total workforce of 9,600, only 252 employees were
members of the nine cooperatives formed between 1981 and 1987, and these
cooperatives employed 698 workmen, the worker could always hope that by being
on the right side of the TKS leadership, he could better the position of himself and
his family. Besides it put enormous resources at the disposal of the TKS leadership.
For the year 1987-88 alone the total turnover of these nine co-operatives was over
Rs. 107 lakh. The leadership of the TKS increasingly lost their identity as
spokesmen of the workers. This got reflected in their style of functioning as union
office-bearers. Issues were no longer represented on the basis of any clearcut
principles or rights, but on ad hoc basis. They were no longer resolved on the basis
of the workers' strength but the clout of their office. Sometimes issues relating to
production and shop floor problems were resolved satisfactorily, but most often they
were not. It was an alienated leadership providing patchwork solutions.
While these trends were developing within the TKS leadership, amongst the workers
other developments were taking place. After the failure of the foundry workers'
agitation, the workers began to look once again towards the internal union - the
TKS. In the December 1981 elections the workers elected beside the other
established leaders, Rajan Nair and a few others who they perceived as being
better. In the beginning of 1982, Rajan Nair was elected general secretary of the
TKS. Along with other members of the negotiating team, he too signed the 1981
settlement on wage revision. This settlement evoked widespread anger and
resentment among the workers. When compared to the increase in their
productivity and the profits of the company the workers felt the settlement gave
them very little. The 1979 settlement had revised the wages by between Rs 150
and Rs 210. The 1982 settlement had increased them by Rs. 350 to Rs. 370.
Besides, the skill benefit and versatility benefits schemes had been modified to give
more leverage to the management and no say to the union in matters relating to
production. A large number of workers who gathered at the company's gate beat up

- 5 the leaders and engaged in stone throwing. It is said that at this juncture Rajan Nair
publicly admitted that he had signed the settlement under pressure from other
committee members. He had been recruited in the company around 1979. When
he became general secretary he had barely six year's service behind him. It is
difficult at this juncture to assess what subjective factors weighed with him in this
turnabout. But from the point of view of understanding the Telco agitation this is
hardly important. What is important is before the workers it refurnished his image
as an honest leader. The workers at this stage needed a hero in whom they could
concentrate their aspirations. The steps that the company took thereafter only
reinforced that need and catapulted one individual into the position of a hero.
After the disturbances at the company's gate in September 1982, the company
declared suspension of operations for over a week and demanded good conduct
bonds from the workers. The workers gave this bond and returned to work. A few
weeks after this the company suspended Rajan Nair and after holding an enquiry
dismissed him from service in the beginning of 1983. To the company this was
sure way to tackle rebellion. It had yielded results in the past, more particularly in
1977 and 1980 and there was no reason why it should not succeed this time. What
the company did not take into account is the fact that the workers too were learning
something from their experiences and were growing more mature in their
understanding of the company. Coincidentally it was during this time that Rajan Nair
himself was arrested in a murder charge. He was under trial for six months or so
after which he was discharged for want of evidence. This factor added to his image
as a leader capable of taking on the Telco management amongst the workers. The
rebel group within the TKS now rallied under the banner of the Rajan Nair Panel
(RNP) and began working as a group. In December 1984 once again the TKS
elections were held. In these elections RNP put up a panel of 20 candidates of
whom 17 won the elections. In a committee of 42 members they were still a minority
and from this point of time the RNP worked as a faction within the TKS.
The RNP did not focus much on the wage revision agreement of 1985. They
concentrated instead on building up grassroots organization. In order to do this,
they first of all changed their style of functioning. Until now by virtue of their
settlements, the leaders of the TKS were allowed to do their union work during
working hours. The leaders were not required to work on the shop floor. They were
given secretarial assistance by the company for their union work. The RNP decided
they would not avail any of these privileges. They began to work on the shop floor.
As a result, they were able to build up a rapport with the workers and tackle
day-to-day shop floor problems directly. Workers too began to approach them for
resolving day-to-day problems. Throughout the period between 1983 and 1987 the
RNP focused on building grassroots support and organization. All this time Rajan
Nair was closely associated with the work of the activists of around 2,000 workers
and staunch sympathizers of around 4,000 workers. Together with the fence -sitters
the RNP had the overwhelming support of the Telco workers. In December 1987
when the TKS elections took place, the RNP put up a panel for all the seats. The
RNP won 34 out of 42 seats. More significant was the fact that all the old leadership
of the TKS lost badly in the elections.

- 6 The language this new committee spoke was different. It actively took up issues on
the shop floor. It questioned the supervisors on the methods of work distribution
and allotment, on transfers and quantum of work and other issues. It must be
mentioned here that the manner in which the productivity of the workers had been
raised, as described above, required extensive supervision.
The ratio of
supervisors to workers is high in the company, roughly around 1:10. The
supervisory staff rang the alarm and the management pushed the panic buttons. As
a result a chain of events followed leading to the present impasse. At this stage it
may be possible to argue that had the management shown greater statesmanship,
balanced judgment and perceptiveness what followed need not have happened. But
today this question will only be academic.
In May 1988 the company suspended and later dismissed the vice president of the
TKS. A group of workers went on a one-day hunger strike. The rest of the workers
boycotted tea, snacks and lunch in the company's canteen as a mark of solidarity
with the hunger strikers. In July 1988 the TKS held a general body meeting and
decided to amend their constitution to allow admission to honorary members who
were not Telco employees. Since there is a provision in the Trade Union Act which
allows admission of honorary members, and there is nothing unusual or illegal about
the amendment, the registrar of trade unions, Pune, allowed the amendments and
registered the same. Rajan Nair was then admitted as honorary member and elected
working president. The wage agreement had in the meantime expired and the TKS
now terminated the old agreement and submitted a fresh charter of demands. The
management refused to speak to the negotiating committee on the ground that they
would not deal with outsiders. Later the reasons for not talking to the committee
kept changing giving rise to doubts among workers and the outside world of
management's bona fides.
At this stage the government on its own motion referred the issue of wage revision
for adjudication. As yet there was nothing to indicate that anything extra-ordinary
had happened in Telco beyond the union submitting its demands. Now the
company took the stand that the matters had been referred for adjudication to a
tribunal by the government and so they would not negotiate with the new committee
as the matter was subjudice. The workers were obviously not in agreement.
Before Diwali of 1988 came the bonus issue. A large number of workers refused to
accept bonus. The company declared 8.33 per cent plus a production bonus of Rs.
1,207. 1987-88 had been an excellent year for the company financially. Between
1985-86 when the last settlement was signed and 1987-88 when the next wage
revision became due, turnover had gone up 37 per cent, net profits by 66 per cent
from Rs. 16.17 crore to Rs. 26.95 crore and value added by 43 per cent. The
workers could not therefore understand why only 8.33 per cent was paid by way of
statutory bonus. A large number of workers (around 1,100) who had been lured into
accepting the bonus returned the same.
All these years the company had deducted the TKS subscription from the workers'
wages and paid it to the TKS. This year the company refused to deduct the
subscription. The TKS had to therefore organize a membership collection drive. It

- 7 opened accounts in banks around the residential areas and called the workers to
deposit the subscription amounts in those accounts. Workers began lining up in
banks. By January 31, 3,811 members had paid subscriptions, by the end of
February another 1,810 had paid and by the end of March a further 1,722.
By now the company began suspending active supporters of the new committee. It
justified its action by saying that it would not tolerate indiscipline. Amongst the
workers this argument had no takers because workers knew the company had
allowed and tolerated far more indiscipline from the older committee. In the midst of
all this the workers resorted to a tool down strike in the beginning of January 1989.
This agitation was peaceful and organized. On January 30, Ratan Tata was to have
visited the factory at Pune. On January 29 Rajan Nair was suddenly detained by the
police preventively under Section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This action
triggered a wave of anger. Though he had been detained on the January 29 the
news spread to the factory on the 30th. The following day, when he was produced
in court, workers collected in the court premises spontaneously. The numbers
began to swell. After arguments for his release, the judgment was reserved for the
next day and the police tried to whisk him away. But workers, whose number was
swelling all the time, refused to let the jeep go and resolved to sit in the court
premises until the release of Rajan Nair. The police then applied to the court and
Rajan Nair was released.
In the meantime certain events happened outside the trade union scene in Telco
which was to have a great impact on the Telco workers' struggle. In January 1989,
the Trade Union Council was formed. In the past joint action committees had been
formed by the trade unions in Pune on the basis of events or issues. For sometime
the idea that the Trade Union Council be constituted as permanent body had been
suggested by a number of unions, but unions were also cautious since in the past
joint councils tended to fizzle out after an agitation or campaign. For six to eight
months, activists had been inviting suggestions and analyzing why past joint
committee had fizzled out. In the meantime Bajaj auto workers in Aurangabad were
having their agitation and workers in Pune through a joint action committee collected
funds for the Aurangabad workers. During this time it was decided to form the trade
union council. The formation was announced on January 19, 1989 at a public
meeting of over 20,000 workers and 31 organizations. The general mood of the
Pune workers therefore was responsive to the Telco workers.
Soon after the arrest and release of Rajan Nair, the Telco Employees Union (TEU)
was formed in February 1989. The company was all along saying they could not
negotiate with the TKS because the matters were pending in court. Now TEU came
out with a hand bill that the company was willing to negotiate with them. The
members of the old committee who had lost in the TKS election were office -bearers
of the TEU. The TEU then challenged the status of the TKS in the courts. Five
office-bearers of the TKS went on a hunger strike outside the company and the
workers boycotted canteen food in solidarity. On the intervention of Madan Bafna,
the `guardian minister' for Pune in the Maharashtra council of ministers, the hunger
strike was withdrawn and assurances were made that their problems would be
looked into by the government.

- 8 The workers were under tremendous pressure to join the TEU between middle of
February and March but the membership of the TEU could not go beyond a few
hundred. The company now started saying since the validity of the TKS elections
was before the courts they would not talk to TKS unless the issue was decided.
Within the company the atmosphere was tense and there was widespread feeling
that the company would lock-out the factory. The leaders of TKS had prepared the
workers and decided that nothing should be done in the company which may
precipitate a lock-out even under gravest provocation. At this point on March 14,
1989, one of the office-bearers of the TKS was assaulted badly within the company
premises by TEU members. Since the TKS had given strict instruction not to do
anything that would precipitate a lock-out, the workers remained under control, but
the anger had reached flash-point. The following day TEU members who were on
their way to work were accosted and beaten up in various parts of the city. Now the
company suspended around 70 - 75 persons of the TKS for engaging in violence.
The company now began to say they would not talk to TKS because they had
engaged in violence. However when things became too obvious the company
suspended and charge-sheeted one of the office-bearers but continued to recognize
the TEU.
In the meantime the chief minister's statement in the Vidhan Sabha that the Telco
must talk to the TKS and government would mediate raised the hopes of the
workers. The TKS in the meantime began to step up its organizational work and
began holding meetings in the residential localities of workers. These meetings
though intended for Telco workers were attended by other workers in the locality.
The Telco agitation was spreading to those factories too. It appears that at this point
other managements in the region began to get anxious about the developments in
Telco and began to press for a resolution of the dispute there. On August 18 was
the annual general meeting of TELCO. In June 1989 the deputy general manager
(manpower) Mehrunkar, who was seen as the architect of the industrial relation
policy in Telco, was not given further extension after retirement. The company
temporarily clubbed the responsibility of personnel with production by handing
charge of industrial relations to the works deputy director (auto division). All this
also raised the hopes of the workers and gave a feeling that the changes reflected a
reappraisal by the company. As a matter of fact tripartite meetings were fixed
between TKS, the company and the government. Though nothing substantial came
of it further meetings were fixed.
Then suddenly the company signed a wage agreement within the TEU on
September 19. By the wage agreement the company sought to give a rise of Rs.
585 on an average. Perhaps it was felt this would lure the workers into the fold of
TEU. The company then sought to apply to the industrial tribunal to pass an award
in terms of the agreement so that it binding on all the workers. The workers had
reached a point of desperation. On September 20 the TKS organized a huge rally of
Telco workers, where on the spot the workers decided to fast indefinitely. Around
6,000 workers are estimated to have gone on a indefinite hunger strike. This was in
the middle of the city, and generated a massive wave of public sympathy. For the
first time perhaps a marketing agency conducted an opinion poll on a workers'
agitation.
The opinion poll conducted by the Marketing and Econometric

- 9 Consultancy Service revealed that 86 per cent of the respondents, all Pune citizens,
were aware of the Telco issue, 82 per cent said they believed TKS was the majority
union, 68 per cent felt workers were peaceful in their methods of agitation, 69 per
cent felt the union was justified in its agitation and 67 per cent felt the struggle of the
Telco workers was for democratic rights.
The Trade Union Council called for a one-day sympathy strike by Pune workers
which was a complete success. Further tripartite negotiations had been fixed for
October 1.
On September 29, the trade Union Council gave a call for demonstrations and street
meetings in as many parts of the city as possible by the workers of other companies
to draw attention on the Telco issue. The police used this as a pretext and swooped
down on the hunger strikers and arrested over 4,000 Telco workers. Of these 2,000
were taken in buses and left off on the outskirts of the city, and 2,000 or so were
taken into custody at places like Ratnagiri and Nashik. The TKS had been in
quandary about how to call of the mass hunger strike without appearing to be back
tracking or weakening. The police action solved that problem. The company had
not been too keen on the tripartite meeting and that problem too was resolved as no
meeting could take place after the arrests.
This triggered off a new wave of anger which spread throughout the city. The Trade
Union Council called for an indefinite industrial strike of Pune workers. But the sight
of Telco workers who had been on hunger strike for 10 days being beaten, pushed
into buses and carried away evoked stone throwing and numerous incidents all over
the city.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Source : Economic & Political Weekly,

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