TUs should act with restraint

The decision taken by sections of the public service Trade Unions to demand a disproportionate festival advance on pain of resorting to a general strike could be described a callous move considering the crippling blows dealt to the economy from all directions, the latest being the unprecedented rise of a barrel of crude oil to 110US dollars in the world market.

Alley this to the astronomical cost of the on going war to defeat terrorism and the vast sum expended to maintain subsidies to the poorer sections it is as much as the Government could do to keep the country’s economy afloat.

Being well aware of the constraints of the Government and the economic plight the country is currently placed in, it is clear that those behind this move is working to a sinister agenda particularly given the timing of their action.

It needs no reiteration that it was after President Mahinda Rajapaksa took the reins of power that the public servants received largesse as never before.

Today even the worker engaged in the lowest menial task is paid a minimum wage of Rs. 12,000 in addition to incentive allowances and other facilities.

These positive measures vis-a-vis public servants welfare are in place while the recruitment to the public sector too is being continued quite in contrast to the time of the UNP regime when state sector recruitment were frozen. The public sector employees had never had it so good during the past two years.

Now certain Trade Unions are demanding a Rs. 5,000 Festival Advance over the Rs. 3,000 which had been promised incurring the Treasury a loss of over Rs. 2 billion.

Under the prevailing circumstances when the Government has to finance a huge subsidy to keep fuel prices steady in the local market coupled with the huge strain on the Treasury coffers imposed as a result of the on going war it is unfathomable as to how the Unions could make such a demand other than with deliberate intent to place the Government in a difficult situation.

It clearly smacks of a political move to create anarchy by elements to whom such conditions are not alien given the chaos and mayhem they want to unleash in the institutes of higher learning in the country.

As pointed out by more sober sections of Trade Union during the past two years, public sector employees have been given their largest ever wage package under the present regime and this was obtained without recourse to street demonstrations or violent Trade Union action.

It was demonstration of the extent to which President Rajapaksa who empathises with common masses has been accommodating and amenable to the demands of the workers. Then why this sudden haste as it is quite obvious the demand was sprung suddenly without a warning.

The ploy of course is clear. Those behind the move has chosen the most sensitive time, when the majority of the people are preparing to celebrate their most important national festival, to strike. By this they are hoping to hold the Government to ransom and make it cave into their demands knowing it (the Government) would have little choice given the magnitude of the festival.

All right thinking members of the public no doubt would want the Government to be firm in rejecting such unreasonable demands and meet the challenge thrown by the Trade Unions head on. It ought to identify those behind the move and haul such elements before the Courts of law now that the judiciary has taken a pro-active stance to deal with unreasonable Trade Union action as we saw during the teachers’ strike.

It is time these elements are shown where to get off. In this respect they are fortunate that they are spared the rigours of being at the receiving end of bicycle-chain-wielding hoodlums of an era where legitimate strikes were crushed with clinical ruthlessness.

The baggage carried by President Rajapaksa as a champion of the working class, to the President’s House may be weighing heavily on his shoulders although his persona as worker friendly leader is still very much evident in his ready accommodation of Trade Unions leaders at Temple Trees to lend a patient hearing to their grievances, a scenario not witnessed with any other leader before him.

The Trade Unions on their part should not take this benevolence for granted and keep their demands reasonable and within the Government’s capacity to fulfil. It is incumbent on them to weigh the pros and cons of their demands - like at present when the Government weighed under severe economic constraints.

They should also spare a thought to the soldiers who haven’t the luxury of indulging in Trade Union action to win demands and are battling with their backs to the wall in the defence of the country making sacrifices in blood.

It is therefore a demonstration of utter callousness of those behind this move who ought to spare a thought for our servicemen and contribute their own mite to boost the morale of our fighting men on the battlefield and not engage in selfish conduct at a time the country is at a crossroads.

Those who have ventured on this irresponsible project should therefore count their blessings that they are still in a position to fight for their demands well away from the theatre of battle.

They should reassess their priorities and reverse any decision that could take the country’s focus away from its most important mission at the moment.