Let us Salute, the MOTORMEN, for their massive strike. This itself is a victory. If just 1000 men can bring the entire city to stand still, why can’t we salute them??? That too in public interest. This is like the Spartans’ war against the big army, even a movie came about this historical story (movie: 300)
Right from the beginning for this Strike, all the media are keen in projecting this strike, as only for the payment hike. They deliberately try to hide the other demands which motormen are trying to resolve through this strike. All the TV channels, webs and papers are doing this united. The fact is not they don’t want to show the real things behind this strike. But they have been ordered by the corporate media’s bigwigs to do so, as they usually do in all the cases.
Today’s headline in Times of India news paper says the this strike is for following demands,
1) Demand - salary related
2) Demand - salary related
3) Demand - salary related
4) Demand - salary related
5) Demand - salary related
6) Filling up the vacancies
From the above any one see the fact that a deliberate measure has been taken to project it as the pay related problem nothing to do with general commuters, so as to show, motormen, as villains-of-the-week. Moreover, just imagine if your salary arrears are pending since 2006, how will you react to your organization? Nobody will have this much of patience to keep on sending remainder mails. One bigger tool used against this strike is by saying “even after the sixth pay commission”. Most of as are unaware of the fact, that 6th pay commission is really good for the top management people, and not for the low level workers. Where as it increases the salary by many manifolds for top management people and relatively very much smaller amount to the real work force.
As a matter of fact, that the motormen are driving our trains more than their stipulated working hours, of course they are getting OT allowances for that. But see this in other perspective, that over-stressed motormen prone to make mistake and it may cost 1000s of life. In that case who is responsible? Why railways are putting us; the general commuters, in such a serious & dangerous game? Moreover, during the strike period, the administration has trained some 60 men in just few hours and then gave them one train with 1000+ passengers in it and told them to drive it. These people had never handled a local train in past (Read the reference article from the below links) Why can’t railways fill in the vacancies and make the rail journey a safer one?? Why overloading the single man whereas actually that job needs more than one? These Questions are yet to be answered by railways, weather it is of any direction say CR, WR or Harbor. There is a notable amount of human factor involved in this matter; as all the motormen are, after all, human beings with same type & amount of all feeling which we have. Over-stressing him will cost our own life, if he makes a mistake and so an accident. Kindly note, this strike not only demands the hike pay but also to fill up the huge number of vacancies in the motormen category. Railways as a cost cutting strategy by keep this under-count work force and compel them to do overtime. Some OT related payments are pending since 2006
Who caused this massive strike??
These motormen had done many small scale strikes before this massive blow, but they too concerned about the general public, so they returned to work immediately, may be in a half-an-hour. So the management thought this will also end up in small course of time. They took the responsibility of the motormen towards the public interest, as their weapon against motormen themselves and escaped from finding the proper resolution for the demands. But this time it will not be the case, we can hope so, as it is evident from the scale of the strike. So the railways management is the root cause for this strike. The management is trying to divide & rule; by saying not any registered unions are supporting this strike. It is evident that how all motor men can not belongs to at least any one of the unions? Literally impossible!!! The corporate media itself saying that, more than 80 to 90 % of these motormen or from registered unions. (Read the reference article fro the below links)
The political parties, at first supported this strike had withdrew it, so as to protect (or to create) the pro-people image. They might have had an idea like keeping these motormen in hand (By supporting their strike) will help them in future, to make a massive stand-still public strike for their own political profits. As time passes on they came to know about the pathetic situation of commuters, suddenly they put a U-turn.
Similarly as in Spartans History, these Spartans’ strike will also die one day. It is impossible to stand opposite to a state, that too only a 1000+ motormen (Spartans)
At end of the day the result is well known that their strike will be mercelessly crushed down as any other massive strikes. The state can use any mode to bring its interest up. May be one or two of their demands in this strike may get fully or partially accepted, but overall results of any democratic struggle against the state will be literally zero. This massive strike itself is a victory and will give immense pressure on railways to see root causes to resolve it, May be filling up enough motormen vacancies. This particular event will be a good lesson for the future working class people of any type & category.
References:
Never driven a local train, says jittery motorman
http://www.ndtv.com/news/cities/never-driven-a-local-train-says-jittery-motorman-22962.php
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Railway-motormens-strike-leaves-city-stranded-fuming/articleshow/5887680.cms