Some intelligence

The CPIM has done well to leave the decision on strikes affecting the IT sector to the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee...

The CPIM has done well to leave the decision on strikes affecting the IT sector to the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. It is also fortunate that the West Bengal chief minister has won his battle within the CPIM on the issue. At one point of time, it almost appeared as if the Left parties were out to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs for the country. An adverse decision would have greatly undermined India8217;s remarkable achievements in services exports and could have left the Indian services sector seriously hobbled by bad labour markets, just as has been the case with Indian manufacturing. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee8217;s decision to take on the party leadership on the issue seems to have paid off and the central leadership 8212; normally seen as far removed from the practical difficulties of governance 8212; has thankfully seen sense this time.

It is also true that trends in the labour market, especially in the new modern private sector, have moved away from the old notions of professional trade unionism. While workers negotiate their wages and working conditions on an individual basis, there is a new modern professional class 8212; especially visible in the IT sector in India 8212; which has turned its back on the notion of trade unions. In that sense, the question of not having strikes in IT is more symbolic than a decision that would impact work in the IT sector.

The real question that the CPIM faces is not about banning trade unions in IT services companies. After all, IT services companies would at the most generate 100,000 jobs in an urban enclave like Kolkata. The real question that faces the CPIM and its partners is about the rest of manufacturing. India has enormous new opportunities in this sector 8212; the most recent among them being in textiles, thanks to the phasing out of the global quota system, and the endemic difficulties that China is facing on various aspects of textile exports. The defining problem that prevents large factories from mushrooming in India is the problem of trade unions. Why should manufacturing in India continue to suffer because of the country8217;s archaic labour laws? It is time that the CPIM worried about policies that hold back the Indian economy as a whole, and nip in the bud many opportunities to increase employment.