Untruths, half truths and blatant lies of FNTO
The 15th December,, 2011 One day striike wiillll be wriitten iin gollden lletters,, iin the hiistory off
tellecom trade uniion movement off our country.. The Non-Executiives and Executiives rose as one
man to oppose the VRS and to saffe guard the BSNL.. But the FNTO betrayed thiis striike.. They diid
not jjoiin the striike and viigorouslly campaiigned agaiinst iit.. To cover up theiir betrayall,, FNTO
relleased an artiiclle on iit’’s websiite,, malliigniing the uniions whiich organiized the striike,, especiialllly
the BSNLEU.. At the tiime off the striike,, we avoiided a controversy by giiviing a replly to that artiiclle..
But the same artiiclle,, “A striike wiith Hiidden Agenda”,, iis publliished iin the December’’11 iissue off
the ‘‘FNO News’’ allso.. Hence,, cllariiffyiing certaiin iissues has become necessary..
When the JAC convenor approached FNTO ffor jjoiiniing the striike,, they put onlly two condiitiions..
One iis that the date off the striike shoulld be changed and the second iis that some off the demands
off the workers shoulld allso be iinclluded iin the charter off demands.. As ffar as the demands are
concerned,, allll the iimportant demands off BSNL workers are allready there iin the charter off
demands.. As ffar as theiir demand to deffer the striike,, the same was not accepted because the
striike was allready defferred twiice.. Further,, they were tolld that,, other uniions / associiatiions have
allready iissued striike notiice,, giiviing 14 days’’ notiice.. Hence,, FNTO can very wellll jjoiin the striike,, by
iissuiing a striike notiice,, even though 14 days are not there,, and no llegall probllem was there.. Stiillll,,
FNTO diid not jjoiin the striike..
The artiiclle says that VRS iis the riight off the workers.. We can onlly llaugh at such statements.. The
scheme proposed by BSNL management iis not a VRS but a CRS.. IIff iit iis a volluntary scheme,,
where the target off ‘‘One llakh’’ has come ffrom? Moreover,, management has allready created a
paniic among the workers,, by curtaiilliing ffaciilliitiies lliike mediicall allllowance,, LTC and Leave
encashment.. There iis a veiilled threat,, that more ffaciilliitiies can be curtaiilled iin ffuture.. IIt iis iin thiis
back ground that BSNL iis proposiing the VRS.. So the management iis compelllliing the workers to
take whatever iis giiven and go home.. IIs iit not a compullsory retiirement scheme?
The artiiclle states that workers have no ffaiith iin the uniions and are payiing subscriiptiion onlly
because off the ffear physco off the ‘‘BSNL Maffiia’’.. IIt iis true that workers have no ffaiith on FNTO..
Thiis iis wellll known ffrom the resullts off the veriiffiicatiions helld so ffar.. But workers have reall ffaiith
on BSNLEU.. Thiis iis allso proved ffrom the resullts off the veriiffiicatiions.. IIn the system off secret
ballllot,, no worker wiillll cast hiis vote to a uniion,, out off ffear.. FNTO shoulld understand thiis siimplle
ffact..
The artiiclle says that BSNLEU siigned agreements agaiinst the iinterests off the workers and shoulld
have apollogiized to them.. The workers have accepted that the wage reviisiion agreement and
promotiion agreement siigned by BSNLEU are the best possiiblle agreements.. BSNLEU contiinues
to strugglle to iimprove the condiitiion off the workers.. IIt iis onlly FNTO that shoulld apollogiise to
workers ffor betrayiing the strugglles that took pllace ffor wage reviisiion and New Promotiion Polliicy..
IIn the artiiclle,, FNTO has exposed iit’’s true collour,, by makiing an antii-communiist tiirade.. IIt has
tolld that the retiirement age iis onlly 55 iin the communiist rulled states off Triipura,, Keralla and
Bengall.. FNTO shoulld have triied to know the ffacts,, beffore telllliing bllatant lliies.. IIn Bengall the
retiirement age off State Government emplloyees iis 60.. The same iis 58 iin Triipura..
IIn Keralla,, the retiirement age iis 55.. At the same tiime the Lefft and Democratiic Front whiich rulled
Keralla duriing the llast 5 years diid not iimpllement the ‘‘Ban on recruiitment’’ brought by the
Congress rulled Centrall Government.. Rather,, iit has ffiilllled up 1..75 llakh vacanciies duriing iits 5
year rulle,, iinclludiing the creatiion off 35,,000 new vacanciies.. Thiis iis a great achiievement by the
LDF government and stiillll FNTO does not hesiitate to attack that government.. Need off the hour iis
that allll uniions / associiatiions iin BSNL shoulld uniite to deffeat the antii-BSNL polliiciies off the govt..
Atlleast hereaffter FNTO shoulld realliize thiis and shoulld come fforward to jjoiin the uniited strugglles..
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