June 13th, 2010
The constitution should have been written by now. Issues not covered in initial drafts prepared by the CA committees but recommended to include in the constitution by the workers should have been presented in the CA by now. As representative of the workers, I, together with other members, on behalf of the GEFONT, to the CA should have cast our votes for the right and against the wrong provisions of each article of the constitution. But it is a shame that we are observing the great May Day in the open air due to the negative consequence of dilapidated politics. Even the May Day has been the prey of the largest party’s obstinacy. Again the kettledrum of conflict is being heard. And the sign to replace the tool of invention in our workplace by the weapon of destruction is proximately high.
Transformation is possible!
It has been our conviction for generations. And it is this conviction that has engaged us in struggles over generations. One hundred and twenty-four years ago, workers in the street of Chicago had declared, “we labour selling people are not the machine to earn property for the capitalists… To protect our labour power, refresh it and keep it creative, a whole day should be divided into three components of ‘work’, ‘rest’ and ‘recreation'”. They raised these voices for the working class people of generations to come.
The historic day today is being observed as 121st May Day to pay respect to the workers, such as August Spice, who sacrificed and offered their blood.
On behalf of all the workers of Nepal, a glorified land in the pal of Everest, I would like to pay tributes to all those martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the welfare of the working class people. My salute to them all! I would also like to take this opportunity to offer my hearty greetings to all working people of Nepal who have been struggling over the last 6 decades to jettison the autocratic monarchy and establish democratic republic.
Nepali trade union movement has embraced “the right to work”, “right to wage”, “right to equality” and “right to liberty” as “four rights” central to social transformation.
Why is social transformation crucial? It is for every worker to-
These agendas of transformation are clubbed together as “decent work” today. And the right to “Decent work” has been the summary of all demands of all trade unionists of all countries.
Has our movement been able to address these demands?
The year 2009/10 has fallen short of hope in terms of resolving political crisis and addressing rising expectations of the people. However, the efforts made and initiations taken by trade unions have not gone in vain. We rated number one the task of peace building and constitution making. We submitted trade union recommendations to various thematic committees in the Constituent Assembly (CA), and shared them with CA Chairman, Prime Minister and major political parties. We succeeded in influencing them – our recommendations have been included in the drafts prepared by the CA committees.
What are the challenges facing us?
The first challenge is to include issues, not covered by initial drafts, in the final draft constitution and also to ensure those already included in the draft will not be removed from the final draft. Another challenge is to prepare the society as a whole to stand against exploitative and illegal labour practices.
There are employers and employees in each component of would-be-states proposed to be inclusive in terms of ethnicity, gender and regionalism. The existing system stands in favour of the employers, and not of employees. This scenario throws up a challenge to ensure participation of workers in each forum represented by industrialist-entrepreneurs as well as in elected bodies.
The ratification of ILO No. 87, establishment of social security fund, amendment to the Labour Act and enactment of a new law are central to our campaign. I would like to recall the grand mobilisation of workers on 1st February 2010. It was the day GEFONT distributed some 10.5 million pamphlets across the country. The pamphlets aimed to inform people of the social security system and ILO Convention No 87, and mobilise public opinion in favour of these instruments.
It has been a year since the team under my leadership has taken charge of GEFONT. I would like to recall what we said when we were taking charge a year ago: GEFONT would reach most of the districts should the situation allow us at least to move; where there were workers, there would be GEFONT. I am proud to declare now – we have reached 65 districts from 35 a year ago. And, we have built a new structure to organise 50,000 rural woman health volunteers.
Is it enough? What do statistics say?
This statistical picture of our economy is not encouraging. The stagnating global economy has brought about the downward trend in remittance. Our current economy is in a more critical state than it was during the armed conflict, like the instable politics that we are confronting.
We tried our best to keep the labour market from the hazardous of armed conflict. We organised a “Nepal Forum” in Geneva in the presence of trade union leaders from a dozen a countries to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the then rebel and the state. The Forum coincided with the International Labour Conference and was organised jointly by GEFONT and 3 other trade union confederation, the first of its kind.
Unfortunately, the labour relations expected to improve after the establishment of democratic republic took an opposite turn. The community of entrepreneurs submitted themselves to those strong in anarchic forces while flouting the “rule of law” to deal with labour disputes. The world of work was held hostage to a series of wild-cat strikes called by such elements, but the workers were made to pay the price coining a deceptive slogan of “no work- no pay”.
I would like to call on all industrialists/ entrepreneurs and their leaders and organisations to play by the rule. We are ready to be flexible to amend the Labour Act. Are you ready to implement the social security system for the protection of the workers? Are you ready to support the proposal to establish the social security fund with the scheme of benefits involving unemployment allowance, health benefits, accident insurance, and survival’s benefits, among others? We have started contributing 1% from our salaries. Are you ready to contribute your part of 25% as you do in the case of permanent workers? We are ready to amend the existing Trade Union Act for social dialogue. Are you ready to establish a tripartite National Labour Commission to give instance justice to the labour sector?
Finally,
The constitution should have been written by now. Issues not covered in initial drafts prepared by the CA committees but recommended to include in the constitution by the workers should have been presented in the CA by now. As representative of the workers, I, together with other members, on behalf of the GEFONT, to the CA should have cast our votes for the right and against the wrong provisions of each article of the constitution. But it is a shame that we are observing the great May Day in the open air due to the negative consequence of dilapidated politics. Even the May Day has been the prey of the largest party’s obstinacy. Again the kettledrum of conflict is being heard. And the sign to replace the tool of invention in our workplace by the weapon of destruction is proximately high.
On the occasion of the May Day, I urge the main opposition party UCPN-M to ditch its obstinacy “to capture the state power from the street” and adhere to the consensual politics. I call upon all the main political parties to prudently act for the consensus, and not for the conflict.
And, once again, I would like to express my best wishes of the May Day to all the guests here for solidarity, and thousands of our listeners and well wishers watching us and listening to us through the television and radios!
(Keynote speech delivered by GEFONT President Bishnu Rimal
on the occasion of May Day in Nepal Academy Hall,
Kathmandu on 1 May 2010.)