October 3: Since its inception in 1954, the Municipal Mazdoor Union has won every battle it has fought with the BMC. The trump card of the largest union in the civic body, with over one lakh members has been: `Strike work and force the BMC to increase wages', something it has never let the BMC forget (see box). This time, however, the MMU's agitational startegy seems to have badly boomeranged.The BMC has flexed its muscle and cracked down on employees who participated in the latest agitation led by the MMU. 732 temporary employees were struck off the rolls, and over seven suspended for participating in the one-day strike. The bonus agreement signed with 46 unions in the BMC also doesn't include the MMU. Sharad Rao, MMU's working president, did not attend the meeting called by mayor Vishakha Raut to finalise the bonus. The union is also undecided on whether employees affiliated to it should accept the bonus or not, as the administration is giving only 15 per cent bonus, as opposed to its demand for 17. Whether agitating for increase in DA or bonus, the MMU has never lost to the civic body. Even intervention by state governments in the past hardly deterred the MMU. In 1963, the then chief minister M S Kannamwar intervened when the union went on strike for an increase in DA. The confrontation between the state government on one side of the fence and the union on the other also led to the suspension of over 1,000 employees, later reinstated. The corporation also initiated action to derecognise the union, but was forced to retreat after the MMU went to the Industrial court, and was granted recognition in 1964.The MMU has gotten away because the municipal commissioner is left all alone to fight the battle, said former municipal commissioner D M Sukhtankar. ``A line has to be drawn and the union cannot demand abritarily,'' he added. He also felt that the state government should come forward to ease the burden from the commissioner's shoulders. He blamed citizens for allowing the union to dominate over them and hold them to ransom.This time, municipal commissioner Girish Gokhale seemed to be taking no chances. He even conducted an opinion poll of citizens and BMC employees,something unprecedented in labour-management relations. He stated, ``I do not believe in the conventional method of negotiations, whereby the union demands and the administration gives in.'' The BMC is also wondering why the union should continue to enjoy recognition for indulging in an illegal strike. The MMU had assured the Industrial Court that it would not go on strike.For the MMU, this is a blot in an otherwise `sucessful' history of agitation. Every time it has called a strike, its demands have been met. Said Rao, ``We always won because our demands were justified. The workers have never got anything without going on strike.'' This time, though, with public opinion seemingly in the BMC's favour, it looks like the MMU is on the retreat, for a change.
