Mumbai / Ramesh Autade
Not a single sanitation worker post will be cut in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and contractual workers will be regularized. This assurance has been given by the BMC Commissioner, who is scheduled to sign an official agreement with workers' unions on Monday.
Following the assurances given by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis regarding the issues of BMC sanitation workers, a delegation from the Municipal Workers’ Action Committee and the BMC Workers’ Struggle Committee held discussions with the BMC Commissioner.
The meeting was led by Socialist labor leader Sathi Kapil Patil and included representatives Suresh Thakur, Vijay Kulkarni, Ashok Jadhav, Ramakant Bane, Vaman Kawiskar, Milind Ranade, Ranga Satavase, Baba Kadam, Devi Gujar, Prakash Jadhav, Sheshrao Rathod, and Prafullata Dalvi.
The workers’ protest march at Azad Maidan on July 17 and the announced strike drew the attention of Chief Minister Fadnavis, who sent senior minister Girish Mahajan to meet the workers at the protest site. Subsequent discussions with the Chief Minister at the state legislature led to positive developments on the workers' demands. In today’s meeting with the BMC Commissioner, many of those demands were accepted.
Key demands included: ensuring that the tender process does not harm workers' interests, regularizing contractual workers, securing all existing posts, and implementing recommendations from the Lad-Page Committee. Chief Minister Fadnavis had personally given a clear assurance to this effect. The Commissioner informed union leaders that the formal agreement will be signed on Monday.
As a result, the strike scheduled to begin on July 23 has been called off. A victory rally will be held on Monday, said Waman Kawiskar, coordinator of the Struggle Committee.
Union leaders Ashok Jadhav, Ramakant Bane, Comrade Milind Ranade, and Baba Kadam stated that this is the biggest victory for Mumbai’s sanitation workers in the past decade. They expressed their gratitude to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, and labor leader Sathi Kapil Patil.
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