iNTERVIEW : SHASHANK RAO , BEST UNION LEADER



Strike

BEST

As the strike enters the eighth day today — making it the longest in BEST’s history — Shashank Rao, leader of the workers’ union, says the strike has been the staff’s last resort.We had been trying to hold a dialogue for a year, but the management failed to respond. The wage agreement expired in March 2016, after which we submitted a fresh agreement in May that year. But to date, only one meeting has been convened – that was in October last year. We called for a strike on December 12, 2018, and notified the management. We then had a vote on December 20, at which around 95 per cent employees favoured going on a strike. We issued a strike notice to the management on December 24, but it didn’t respond. It instead approached the industrial court on January 3 and called us for a meeting the following evening. But nothing happened over the next three days, forcing us to go ahead with our strike on January 8. We were left with no option.The merger of BEST and BMC budgets will be in the larger interest of commuters. BEST says it does not have money, which ultimately affects services rendered. Section 134 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act states that the BMC should make up for any and all of BEST’s deficit, but the civic body isn’t doing this. In 2013, BEST was given Rs 1,600 crore, but charged a 10 per cent interest. It was illegal and unjustified. BEST is a service, not a profit-making company. If the budgets are merged, there will be no shortage of funds and all services can continue uninterrupted, which will help citizens.We also want the 14,000-odd daily wage employees inducted in 2007 who were given permanent jobs in 2012 to get their rightful dues. Although they were made permanent, the management then said it didn’t have the money to pay the higher salaries. So a new lower grade was created, with the condition that once the agreement lapsed on March 31, 2016, they would be given higher wages as well as paid retrospectively. Our third demand is that the administration should start discussions on drawing up a new wage agreement.The last longest strike was the one called by George Fernandes in 1982 which lasted for seven days. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going ahead with the strike which will be its eight day making it the largest in the BEST’s history. The strike is driven by the employees because the issues are so genuine and a struggle for survival. It has been stretched for so long as the management does not want to agree to BEST being a services and are looking at it from a profit-loss perspective. It is a service and can never be in surplus. The BEST management and the Municipal Commissioner wants us to withdraw our opposition to wet leasing and have asked us to do so. But they are not ready to hear anything from us.There is nothing that we have been offered. The civic chief has not even agreed to pass the resolution of the merger with the state government which was agreed and passed by the committee. He has said in simple words that he will not pass on the resolution to the state government for implementation. This is not how a democracy functions. The manner in which things are being dealt by the civic chief makes one question whether are in a democratic set up as something passed by elected representatives is not implemented.We have not approached him directly but had submitted our list of demands to him. Looking at the situation, he himself should have stepped in and worked towards reaching a solution for it.