ROURKELA: The defeat of the BMS-affiliated Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh (RIKKS) in the trade union recognition election of SAIL’s Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), considered a major setback, is being attributed to the Steel Ministry’s non-cooperation.
The failure of RIKKS to retain power for the third consecutive term assumes greater significance as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), despite being the country’s largest trade union, had never won the union election in any of SAIL’s plants till RIKKS won in October, 2014, the first-ever victory for BMS.
Following the maiden win, the then Union Minister NS Tomar had ensured entry of BMS into the National Joint Committee on Steel (NJCS) in May, 2016 ignoring resistance from the four permanent members- INTUC, HMS, CITU and AITUC. Established in 1969, the NJCS is the highest body for policy decisions and periodical wage fixation of public sector steelworkers.
While RIKKS president HS Bal said they would analyse the reasons for defeat, other BMS leaders confided that against the expectation of workers, the trade union got no cooperation from the Steel Ministry in the last five years.
“This time, the INTUC-affiliated Rourkela Shramik Sangh (RSS) and the third powerful union Gangpur Mazdoor Manch (GMM) had fought together. Yet RIKKS could have won had it got support of the Ministry in addressing workers’ issues including timely finalisation of wage agreement and promotional benefits to diploma engineers,” the leaders said.
RSS general secretary Prashant Behera said the RIKKS won in 2014 and 2018 but did nothing to enable any financial benefit to workers. The workers were also angry as after finalisation of wage agreement, payment of arrears was not done on time. “RIKKS also failed to address basic daily problems of workers including medical services, maintenance of quarters and electricity issue among other things,” Behera claimed. While the official declaration of the election result would be made after permission of the Orissa High Court, sources said RSS secured 5,242 votes against 3,859 bagged by RIKKS.