As the Indian Telephone Industries Limited (ITI) workers’ protest in Bengaluru entered its 86th day, 800 people gathered for a convention on Thursday organised by farmers, Dalit and workers’ organisations opppsite the ITI corporate office in K.R. Puram.
Clifton D’ Rozario, All-India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), spoke on the need to highlight the injustice of the contract system “which is nothing but modern day slavery”. He cautioned workers not to succumb to communal hatred which he said only serves to undermine the Constitution and workers’ unity.
Workers who are protesting were barred from entering ITI premises in December 2021 after they started unionising to demand pending payments and statutory rights. They claim that they were not aware they had been hired on contract.
Mavalli Shankar, Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (Ambedkarvada), demanded that the the ITI management concede to the 80 workers. He urged protesters to recognise that the government is pro-corporate and communal.
Hemant Kumar, President ITI unit of Karnataka General Labour Union, pointed out that many of the ‘contract workers’ had been with ITI for over 30 years.
Protesters called for the government to abolish the contract labour system, outsourcing, fixed-term employment, and other forms of “bonded labour”.
Many of the speakers at the convention voiced their support for actor Chetan Kumar A., who was arrested for tweeting critical remarks against a Karnataka High Court judge who is part of the three-judge Bench hearing the petitions related to the hijab controversy.
