On 21 December 2011, a gate meeting was held the headquarters of Tata owned Voltas in Mumbai. The occasion was the 200th day of chain hunger strike of workers in defense of their rights. 5 women workers of the company were on hunger strike on this day.
On 21 December 2011, a gate meeting was held the headquarters of Tata owned Voltas in Mumbai. The occasion was the 200th day of chain hunger strike of workers in defense of their rights. 5 women workers of the company were on hunger strike on this day.
Leaders of the of the Communist Ghadar Party, Lok Raj Sangathan (LRS), Purogami Mahila Sangathan (PMS), All India Loco Running Staff Association(AILRSA) and CITU expressed their solidarity with the workers. The gates were plastered with posters denouncing the management’s anti worker attitude.
The meeting was addressed by the leaders of the Voltas Employees Union Comrades, Ravi Nambiar, Ramesh Nair and Com Patil. The representative of LRS was welcomed on the dais. He saluted the brave workers of Voltas who were taking on the might of one of India’s biggest capitalists, the Tata’s. The struggle of the Voltas workers was a struggle of the entire working class.
Comrade Syed Ahmed of CITU asked why 200% dividend is paid to Voltas shareholders while the demands of the workers are not settled.
The representative of PMS said that the capitalist class takes away the rights of workers by keeping workers on contract.
The representative of AILRSA, Comrade Bharadwaj, pointed out that the Maharashtra State Legislature at its ongoing winter session had passed a law that anybody in the Government sector who goes on strike will be arrested and put in jail. A lot of noise is being made about corruption these days. The biggest corruption is the loot of the labor of the working class. He gave the example from Panchatantra tales of how when the birds were trapped in the hunters net, with the united effort of all the birds they could lift the net and gain freedom.
The representative of CGPI said that the struggle of the Voltas workers is part of the ongoing struggle in India and the world against the domination of the monopoly capitalists and the financial oligarchy. Society can function without the capitalist class. The capitalists violate laws with impunity. The working class needs to challenge the rule of the big capitalists.
Mazdoor Ekta Lehar expresses its full support for the just struggle of Voltas' workers for their rights.