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'Strikes scaring investors away from Kerala'

George Iype in Kochi

As Kerala remained paralysed on Tuesday due to a 24-hour strike called by the pro-Left trade unions, entrepreneurs and industry associations said that such frequent bandhs in the state are hitting the government's investment initiatives.

The strike crippled normal life across Kerala as most of the offices and shops remained shut, vehicles went off the roads, and schools and colleges were closed.

Police said only stray incidents of violence - mainly stone throwing - have been reported from certain parts of the state.

The Kerala government deployed police personnel across the state and beefed up security at airports, railway stations, and major state and central government offices.

While the police took into preventive custody scores of bandh supporters, employees owing allegiance to the trade unions took out a march at Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

The 13 trade unions that sponsored the strike to protest against the anti-labour policies of the central and state governments included the pro-Left groups like the Central Indian Trade Union, All India Trade Union and the pro-Sangh Parivar Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh.

The trade unions' grouse is against Chief Minister Antony's decision to bring in labour reforms in an attempt to woo investments into the industry-starved state.

Last week, the Antony government passed the Kerala Loading and Unloading (Regulation of Wages and Restriction of Unlawful Practices) Act in the state assembly.

The Act gives the employers in domestic and non-domestic sectors the right to engage workers of their choice to move articles and freight.

The new law has upset and weakened the trade union workers who used to charge exorbitant rates for moving goods in industrial parks, export processing zones and construction sites.

"The new law will considerably change the bad image of militant trade unionism that Kerala has got. It has been a bold step," Varghese Kurien, a major construction contractor in Kochi told rediff.com.

Kurien said the trade unions are naturally upset because the new legislation permits police intervention and would even lead to punishment, including imprisonment, if the union workers charge unreasonable rates and resort to intimidating methods.

Leaders of the Communist Party of India Marxist, one of the main sponsors of the strike, said that they would continue to resist such anti-labour policies of the Antony government.

"Trade unions have joined hands to fight against the anti-labour programmes of the Congress government. We will also campaign against the privatisation policies of the government which is creating social and economic havoc in Kerala," CPIM leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said.

CPIM and its affiliated trade union organizations have charted out a long list of anti-Antony government campaign programmes. They include frequent strike calls, street corner meetings across the state and a full-fledged campaign against the Global Investors Meet that the Antony government has planned in November.

Businessmen said the trade unions' decision to blindly oppose the reform process that the Antony government has ushered in are scaring away prospective investors from Kerala.

"Entrepreneurs have been looking at Kerala with interest because of the reform programmes that the Antony government has tried to launch in the last one year. But the current militant labour resistance against these reforms will hinder the flow of investment into Kerala," K K Mohandas, an information technology consultant told rediff.com.

He said it was just on Sunday that the Kerala government successfully concluded a huge IT fair at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram.

"But the sad thing is that some of the IT companies who put up the stalls at Technopark could not move out of the state because the strike today," he lamented.

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