The potential pay-off in view of the ensuing elections: a significant chunk of the non-officer cadre bank employees as members, and sympathy from millions of bank customers who would be hit by the strike. The Sena banking union hopes to rope in one lakh members by December 1996, more than 14 per cent of the total Indian bank employee population.
So far, trade-unionism in most white-collared workplaces has been dominated by the Left parties. Around 89 per cent of the seven lakh non-officer cadre bank employees are members of either the CPI-affiliated All Indian Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), the CPI(M)-affiliated Bank Employees' Federation of India (BEFI) or the Leftist non-party-affiliated National Confederation of Bank Employees. The Sena has so far been successful only in capturing industrial workers' unions across Maharashtra. Says a labour relations consultant: "Among the white-collared workers, the Shiv Sena was perceived as a party of hooligans. Now that they have gained power and respectability, it won't be long before the dominating Leftist unions lose out to the pragmatic Shiv Sena unions in banks and the insurance industry."
Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackerey knows this only too well. And has askedSudhir Joshi, state revenue minister, to organise the unions in different banks. In December, Thackeray will formally announce the launch of the Bank Karmachari Sena Mahasangha, the federation of all Sena unions in different banks. Says Umakant Kotnis, general secretary of the Bank of Maharashtra Karmachari Sena, the Sena-affiliated union formed in 1991: "In the Bank of Maharashtra, we're already number two in membership after the AIBEA. During the past month, we've enrolled over 7,000 members in the five Bank of Maharashtra branches in Bombay."
The Shiv Sena's bid to wean away loyalties began soon after the four bank employees' unions called for a strike on August 31 to protest against the sixth bipartite wage settlement with the Indian Banks' Association (IBA). Thackeray immediately opposed the strike call. The subsequent two-day strike on September 26 and 27 was also opposed.
The four unions said their agitation was called because the bank officers had received better pay packets than the clerical staff and that during the negotiations, the IBA did not agree to the demands of the unions on higher neutralisation of dearness allowance—the formula by which the DA is linked to the rise in the consumer price index. Asks Joshi, who is also president of the Bank Karmachari Sena: "When the IBA did not accept the higher neutralisation formula for DA as demanded by the four negotiating unions, then where was the hurry and the necessity to sign?"
The Karmachari Sena's argument: both the IBA and the unions had concurred that the load factor—amount of total disbursement as salary increase—would amount to Rs 388.344 crore. The 10.5-per cent increase in wages over the last settlement is also in order with what the unions had agreed. The wage increase for the officers' grade has also been of a similar percentage. But they seemed to have gained more than the clerks because while the officers were able to convince the IBA to keep the conveyance allowance out of the purview of the 10.5-per cent increase, the same was included within the load factor for the clerical cadre.
This is ammunition enough for the Sena-led banking unions. "The pertinent question is why the four apex unions—boasting 98 per cent membership in the banking industry—did not fight tooth and nail to have the conveyance allowance kept outside the allocation of the load factor which would have meant reallocation of an extra Rs 81.96 crore, a hike of 2.218 per cent over the last settlement," says Kotnis.
Kotnis gives examples to prove that the four unions may have short-sold their members. He says the special allowance should have been kept outside the load factor. This would have raised salaries by another 0.540 per cent. While the officers'association got their basic pay increased by 7.103 per cent, the four unions could negotiate a hike of only 1.458 per cent for the clerical staff. Since the DA, house rent allowance (HRA), and city compensation allowance (CCA) of the clerical staff are linked to the basic pay, the unions should have concentrated on getting the basic hiked. Asks Kotnis: "Why did the four apex unions not use their brains, experience and prudence in allocating the maximum of the load factor to the basic pay, as the officers' association successfully did?"
THE Sena believes that if bank employees have been short-changed in the wage settlement, the harm can hardly be undone by going on strike to resist an agreement that has already been signed and sealed. Besides, the Sena argues that if the IBA does agree to a renegotiation, the officers too will clamour for the same.
The strategy is paying off in Bombay and Maharashtra. Some Canara Bank employees have already formed the Canara Bank Karmachari Sena. Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India and State Bank of India have all followed suit.
While the Class III employees of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are at present affiliated to the BEFI, they are expected to join the Sena association by December. The president of the Class IV employees union, Suryakant Mahadik, is a Shiv Sena MLA. Once the RBI Karamchari Sena is formally launched, Mahadik will obviously merge his union with the Sena's.
Even the general secretary of the AIBEA, Tarkeshwar Chakraborti, has reportedly agreed that several Sainiks belong to his union. After Thackeray's first call to oppose the strike in August, several staffers in the State Bank of India, Bombay, who were members of the National Confederation of Bank Employees also decided to report for work during the strike. "There is no doubt that the Sena Federation will be at the next bipartite negotiating table with the IBA in 1997," says a confident Kotnis.
The Kamgar Sena is holding a national conference in Calcutta next month, which will help the party gauge the mood in the east. But the biggest attraction, the Sena hopes, will be the Bank Karmachari Sena Mahasangha national conference in Bombay next month when Thackeray himself will exhort all the bank employees to join the Sena movement in banks.
The figures too are in favour of the Sena. Of the approximately 7 lakh bank employees, Maharashtra has over 2.25 lakh. "In Maharashtra the minimum members we can get will be over 75,000, and getting 25,000 members from the rest of the country to join the Sena union will be a cakewalk," says Kotnis. If that happens, the Sena union will be catapulted from nowhere to third position among the unions nationally.
The common man too will benefit. Irked by frequent strikes most customers have become antagonistic towards bank employees. Thackeray's call to oppose the strike would endear him to a vast number of people, however briefly. As a trade unionist points out: "To fight any battle on a national scale, the Shiv Sena needs to integrate colours other than saffron." This might just help that little bit when the elections come around next. And the Sena's hardly thinking of stopping at banks. Says Joshi, "After the banking sector, the Shiv Sena will also gear up the employees of the insurance industry." There now seems to be no stopping the Sena brigade.
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