The All India Centre of BSNLEU had given call to observe 40^th anniversary of the first General Strike held in 1982. Accordingly, the programme has been observed in many circles yesterday, even amidst the alarmingly spreading Omicron variant of the COVID-19 pandemic. CHQ heartily congratulates all the circle and district unions which have taken the initiative to organise the programme even at a very difficult situation.

West Bengal circle union of BSNLEU effectively organised programmes yesterday, to mark the 40^th anniversary of the first General Strike held on 19.01.1982. Physical meetings were organised at CTO, Kolkata, as well as in various districts. As per the call of the All India Centre, donation was also collected among the employees for the Agricultural Workers Union. 

The 40^th anniversary of the first All India General Strike was observed by Kerala circle union, by way of an online seminar. Com.P. Manoharan, Circle President, presided over and Com.C. Santhosh Kumar, CS, welcomed everyone. The seminar was inaugurated by Dr.V. Sivadasan, MP. He elaborately spoke on the anti-worker policies of the government, as well as the attacks being launched on the public sector. He called on the entire BSNL employees to make the General Strike, to be held on 23^rd & 24^th February, 2022, a total success. The seminar is also addressed by Com.V.A.N. Namboodiri, one of the leaders of the 1st General Strike, Com.M. Vijayakumar, AGS and Com.P.R. Parameswaran, Org. Secretary (CHQ).

Recently, the Corporate Office has issued guidelines to the circles, for processing the cases for claiming superannuation benefits of the retired/deceased Directly Recruited employees. In this connection, the CA Branch of the Corporate Office has issued one more letter to the CGMs today. In that letter it is stated that, superannuation benefits have not been claimed so far, in respect of 3,899 Directly Recruited employees who have either superannuated or deceased.  Hence, circle and district secretaries of BSNLEU are once again requested to ensure that, the claims are made without further delay by the dependents of the superannuated / deceased Directly Recruited employees. 

After the implementation of VRS, the BSNL Board had approved the manpower requirement of various cadres in BSNL, w.e.f. 01.02.2020. Based on this approval, the Corporate Office has issued letter today, communicating the sanctioned strength of various circles, in the cadres of JTO(T), JE(T), TT and ATT. 

Accordingly, the new sanctioned strength in these cadres is:-

JTO : 11,756 ;      JE: 7991 ;     TT: 11,112 ;     ATT: 11,112.

The Corporate Management has amended Para 9 of the BSNL Transfer Policy and has imposed stringent conditions in the availing of temporary transfers by the employees. As a result, employees are unable to get temporary transfers. The issue was discussed in the meeting held on 27.10.2021, between the CMD BSNL and the AUAB. It was agreed in that meeting that, a Joint Committee, consisting of the representatives of the Management Side, as well as the representatives of the AUAB, would be formed to suggest relaxations. However, the Management has not taken action so far, for the constitution of the Joint Committee. Hence, BSNLEU has written to the Director (HR) today, demanding to reconstitute the Joint Committee immediately for the review of the restrictions that have been imposed. 

40 years ago it was on this day, i.e., on 19th January,1982, the first country - wide General Strike was organised by the Indian working class. The strike was organised by the Sponsoring Committee of the Central Trade Unions” and “National Federations”. It was supported by the opposition parties like Janata Party, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, Lokdal, Forward Block, RSP and the DSP. The charter of demands of the strike included, food and other essential commodities at reasonable prices to the people, remunerative prices for the peasants and minimum wages for the agricultural workers. This General Strike  was joined by the workers, peasants and agricultural workers. Ten comrades were killed in this strike by police brutalities, in different parts of the country. Among them, many were poor agricultural workers. In Tamil Nadu alone, 3 agricultural workers were killed in police firing. Despite severe repressions,  the strike was a resounding success and it gave birth to the slogan of “ Worker-Peasant Unity”. Today, when the Modi government is bulldozing the country with it’s  pro-corporate policies and is launching all out attacks on the working people, the spirit of “Worker-Peasant Unity” has to be strengthened. This is the lesson that we have to learn from the first General Strike, that shook the nation 40 years ago. Red salutes to the martyrs.

The All India Centre of BSNLEU has decided to observe the 40^th anniversary of the first General Strike held on 19.01.1982. Call has been given to organise district level general body meetings tomorrow in this connection. Apart from the 40th anniversary, the issues of National Monetisation Pipeline, General Strike to be held on 23rd and 24th February,2022 shall also be discussed in the meetings. The All India Centre has also given call for the collection of Rs.5/- from each member, as donation to the Agricultural Workers Union. All the circle and district secretaries are requested to organise the programme successfully and also to send report and photos to the CHQ.

BSNLEU is continuously pressing on the Management to consider the request transfers of DR JEs, as per para 8 of the BSNL Transfer Policy. BSNLEU has submitted a list of 56 DR JEs, who had already completed 5 years of service, applied for Rule 8 transfer, but were not considered. The matter was discussed by Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS with the CMD BSNL on 05.01.2022. Based on this, the Corporate Office has started taking action. A letter is issued by the Corporate Office today, addressed to all the CGMs, calling for the details such as sanctioned strength, working strength, % of short fall, number of transfers requested, etc. of the DR JEs.  All the circle secretaries are requested to immediately ensure that, the details called for by the Corporate Office are furnished immediately.