The 30 General Conference of North Zone chapter of All India Insurance Employees Association held in Shimla recently has once again demanded a formal recognition from the Government for its largest union representing about 85 per cent of the total workforce representing the public sector giant, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
Though claiming to be politically neutral, the North Zone Insurance Employees Association leaders maintain that it is only the Left parties that are raising their voice against the privatisation and bringing unbridled Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the insurance sector.
The LIC trade union leaders condemned the government for not giving it recognition despite representing the majority workers including the Class III and Class IV employees in the country. President of the Association, Anil Bhatnagar, claimed that even though not being recognised by the government, the union has successfully resisted all attempts against privatisation and liberalisation of the insurance sector and bringing FDI by the successive regimes since 1990.
Some of the leaders participating in the three-day convention also claimed that it is because of its indirect affiliation with the Left that both the in-power political formations in the country had refused recognition to the association from past many years. “The Congress and the BJP unions control just 15 per cent of the remaining work force in the LIC,” they said.
A vigorous debate on whether to shed the Left tag altogether or align openly with it had also come up during the informal discussions, said many participants. The majority of them complained that their association with the Left is reduced only to trade union activity and they are unable to contribute anything substantial in changing the nature of politics in India.
But their leaders in interaction with media refused that trade unionism has been reduced to “economism” only and claimed that the union is also politicising its cadres for bringing political change in the country by voting for pro-working class parties. They simultaneously accepted that the 60,000-strength of LIC workers is too less for making any political dent in a vast country like India.
In its resolutions, the union demanded cancellation of The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, as well as check on exploitation of unorganised workers, crises in agriculture, price rise and atrocities on women workers.
The convention, held in mid-September, once again elected Anil Bhatnagar as its president and Navin Chand as the secretary. The general conference was inaugurated by the CPI-M Rajya Sabha MP Tapan Sen.
