Trade union in RMG sector

THE government's decision to introduce trade union in the garment sector--following the deaths of three workers in police firing at Tongi-- is understandable. We are open to the initiative, with some safeguards. The situation prevailing in the industry as a whole has to be examined in all its ramifications before an effective solution to the recurring labour unrest can be found.

The point to be noted here is that the whole issue revolves around the question of workers' representation in matters pertaining to their professional interests. True, lack of organised means of articulation and presentation of the workers' grievances before the employers and the labour ministry has been a major missing link in the garments sector. And yet caution is in order because trade unionism, if our past experience is anything to go by, has a record of often degenerating into a tool in the hands of self-seeking coteries operating as workers' representatives. They basically ended up advancing their feuding agenda and self-aggrandisement at the expense of the genuine grievances of the workers. Secondly, trade unionism has had a way of turning into an appendage of a political party. Obviously, we do not want today's medicine to become tomorrow's malady.

If the ruling party and the opposition agree to allow a free and healthy growth of trade unionism focusing on the rights and benefits of the workers alone, it will indeed be an ideal situation. But what we have witnessed over the years is that the demands and sentiments of workers were exploited by the politically motivated elements in the union and they indulged in activities that threatened the very existence of the mills and factories, leading to their ultimate closure.

The workers' rights have to be established within the broad framework of smooth industrial relations where the trade union is supposed to play the role of a positive catalyst. It must be based on professionalism, not primarily thriving on linkages to political party. Nobody should be allowed to use the workers as pawns in the trade union game that serves neither the industries, nor the workers themselves.

So, the need of the hour is not to jump to a solution but to have all the safeguards to trade unions so that they can be the true defenders of the workers' rights and an effective partner in the growth of industries. That said, the rights of workers are too sacrosanct a thing to be ignored or undermined. The parties concerned -- the owners, the government and workers' representatives -- have to evolve the ways and means for introducing a trade union culture that will help establish the workers' rights without affecting production, investment, enterprise and growth.