Every year the 1st day of the May month is commemorated as International Workers’ Day. It is declared so to honour the working class struggle which happened in the 19th century in US to claim their right of “Eight hours work, Eight hours rest and Eight hours for what they wish”. Workers had even lost their lives for this right that we claim now. In India, there are several labor laws to ensure our Eight hour work, Provident Fund, Protection from termination of employment, to form unions, to do strike etc., We have these laws in the Constitution papers because of the legal and political struggles and the sacrifices of working class of India; though they are not fully enforced into implementation.
Recently in April – 2016, when Indian government announced the amendment of several rules to restrict the withdrawal of Provident Fund, lakhs of garment workers including 1.2 lakh women workers were on streets which forced the government to defer the proposal. This low paid garment workers struggle protected entire working class including our IT workers’ withdrawal right of PF amount too. Our collective resistance in the year 2014 against TCS layoff protected the several thousands of TCS employees from illegal forceful terminations. In Tamilnadu, around 600 people lost their lives in the struggle against the imposition of Hindi language. So, nothing is free of cost, we have paid a price for everything. This is how a society progresses in the history.
Indian IT industry is one of big industry having around 40 lakh workers working in modern Information Technology. We face several issues including the very basic threat to the security of our job. Now, Indian government has introduced the Fixed Term Employment amendment in Standing Order Act bypassing all parliamentary democratic processes. The corporates welcomed this saying this is their long time request to adjust the workforce (hire and fire) according to market conditions. Market requirement and profit of the corporates is the high priority than the human lives. This is going to worsen the problem of IT workers.
The capitalist system of production and services is in big crisis across the world. They indiscriminately exploit the nature and human beings across the world just to increase their wealth. They conduct wars on the country which stand firmly against the interest of world big capitalists. They even destabilize the democratically elected governments those who assert their people’s interest. People are forcefully made to leave their own mother lands, to migrate to foreign lands and live on streets.
World working class is on streets to fight for quality education, employment, health care and social security. On this May Day, F.I.T.E wishes to say that we are strong only when we united. Let’s unionize to protect our fundamental right to live a dignified life. Let’s stand in solidarity with all the struggles of working class across the world.
FITE, TamilNadu
