Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has asked trade unions to correct it’s unhealthy practices to ensure that the State’s interests are not affected.
Mr. Vijayan, who is also a Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], came down on the wrong positions adopted by the trade unions while presenting the ‘Nava Keralam’ vision document at the delegates’ meeting of the State party conference here.
Referring to the incidents related to the high-handedness by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) resulting in closure of business ventures, Mr. Vijayan said the trade unions were continuing with such unhealthy practices despite realising that they were wrong. They need to end such tendencies as it would affect the image of the State as an investment-friendly destination, he said.
Mr. Vijayan recalled that the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had taken steps to do away with practices such as the ‘nokkukooli’.
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, CPI(M) State Secretary, told mediapersons that the government would hold discussions with the trade unions to avoid closure of business enterprises owing to the differences with the managements.
Trade unions need to propose solutions that would end practices, which would affect the government’s intent to bring in investment and boost internal production. The managements should also think about how they could provide jobs to the trade union members, he said.
Asked how the State would turn investment-friendly at a time when the CPI(M) itself was calling for hartals and nationwide strikes against the Centre, Mr. Balakrishnan said that hartals had been in practice for long and investments were coming in despite such protests. ‘‘But we have taken initiatives that exempts sectors such as tourism and IT from the ambit of hartals, he said.
