West Bengal union flays SC order on strikes

KOLKATA: The West Bengal state co-ordination committee on Wednesday reacted sharply to a Supreme Court verdict labelling strikes called by any government organisation "illegal and unlawful", even as Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee adopted a wait and watch policy, reserving his comments till he received a copy of the order.
The apex court had ruled that government employees under no circumstances had any fundamental legal or moral right to go on strike.
Delivering the judgement, while disposing of petitions pertaining to Tamil Nadu government employees'' strike, a bench comprising Justice M B Shah and Justice A R Lakshmanan said, "even the trade unions, who have a guaranteed right for collective bargaining, have no right to go on strike".
Reacting sharply to the judgement, state co-ordination committee general secretary Sarajit Roy Chowdhury said, "I too haven''t seen a copy of the order myself, so I wouldn''t like to make a comment on the judgement itself."
He added, "However, going on strike is a birth right of trade unions and under no circumstance are we going to let go of this right. When labourers go on strike it is not because they want a holiday. It is because all other ways and avenues of collective bargaining or agitation have failed. A strike is a last resort in a trade unions fight against a company owner or even the government of the day. We will no let go of this right."
When asked to comment on the issue, the Chief Minister avoided a direct answer. "Let us first receive the order. It would not be prudent to talk before that," he said.