The CPM questioned the results of verification of trade union membership for 2001, announced by the Union ministry of labour last month. The results showed a sharp decline in the strength of CITU, a CPM-affiliated trade union, and an increase in the membership of Congress-affiliated INTUC and BJP-affiliated BMS. An article in People’s Democracy questioned the procedure of verification arguing that it is done on the assessment of membership on the basis of spot checking. “It can be manipulated through the verifying officer,” said the article. The ‘fallacy’ of verification was clearly seen when the results of the secret ballot of railway unions were announced. The verified membership of all railway unions stood at 25 lakh while the number of workers is only 13 lakh, said the article.The Government of India is not applying the same norm for verifying the agricultural union membership as applied to industrial workers since there is no common employer and the work is of migratory nature. This has given rise to the tendency of claiming more membership of agricultural workers. In case of CITU, there is a separate organisation of agricultural workers by the name of All India Agricultural Workers Union, which has a membership of 30 lakh. Since CITU has not claimed membership of agricultural workers due to the reasons discussed above, there was a clamour about the CITU’s membership going down, said the PD article. As a matter of fact, CITU’s claimed membership increased from 24 lakh to 34 lakh while verified membership has gone up from 18 lakh to 26 lakh, it said. Don’t close, moderniseThe CITU expressed its strong opposition to the proposed closure of in-house printing presses of the Indian Railways. It was a part of the ‘creeping privatisation’ drive of the railways through outsourcing of different departmental jobs. In spite of the railway minister’s assertion that there would be no privatisation of the railways, privatisation is being resorted to in phases through planned outsourcing of many activities of the railways, said the CITU, urging the railway board to withdraw its decision to close its printing presses. These presses have been catering to the needs of the railways for more than 100 years. The CITU was of the opinion that the railways should modernise these printing presses as is being done at present in the various government of India presses.
