Bengal mulls merging labour unions

October 20th, 2011 - 10:06 pm ICT by IANS  

Kolkata, Oct 20 (IANS) The West Bengal government is considering merging various labour unions in industrial units to tackle problems caused by their large number, a minister said Thursday.

“The industrial units here have a number of unions. In fact, a particular jute mill has as many as 29 unions. So to tackle the problems caused by the large number, we will endeavour to merge them,” Labour Minister Purnendu Bose told reporters.

He said the government will initially bring down the number of unions by merging them and finally go on to have only one union in an industrial unit.

Reacting to the news, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) leader Kali Ghosh said the move was practically impossible to implement.

“Different unions have different ideologies. Getting them together is not possible. Moreover, I want to ask the minister if it is so easy to merge the unions, then why did his party (Trinamool Congress) created a union different from its parent party (Congress),” said Ghosh.

Trinamool formed the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC) after breaking away from the Congress.

The Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) leader Ramen Pandey said the move violated the constitutional right to form association.

“We have the right to form associations. How can the government deny us that right?” Pandey asked.

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