WHEN it started out, the Shiv Sena and its union, the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), in particular were better known as strike-breakers than friends of the working class. The BKS was often used by managements to neutralise the influ-ence of the Left unions. Today, the union has emerged as a powerful outfit in the state and exerts its dominance in areas which were once CPI-CPI(M) citadels.
On its way to the top, Thackeray's saffron union has acquired an unflattering 'pro-management' stamp, leaving the task of picketing and gheraos to other unions. But allegations of striking deals with managements have not halted the growth of the BKS in any way—it is growing by the day.
The scale of its growth is reflected in the fact that in 28 years the BKS has pushed ahead from being a small unit in the Reserve Bank of India to controlling unions in over 900 companies in the country's commercial capital. The BKS presence is in big league companies, like Larsen & Toubro and Bajaj, besides five star hotels, private airlines and some prominent hospitals. Says BKS Secretary Albert Pinto: "Just like Dev Anand, we are evergreen. We go on, while other unions have come and gone." Not content with Maharashtra, the union has set its sights on Delhi, Meerut and Ghaziabad too.
The Kamgar Sena's Karl Marx is naturally Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena chief. The union's guiding principles are Thackeray's theories on productivity and management—which is conferring with managements rather than confronting them. Points out BKS President Ramakant More: "Production, productivity and discipline. That is Balasaheb's message. Our protests are different—we don't want to close the factory for no rhyme or reason. One should know what is good and bad for the worker." So instead of shouting slogans and holding gate meetings, the Kamgar Sena holds training courses in Total Quality Management and other Japanese-style management systems.
The Sena's federation of unions, which covers public transport, the printing industry and other areas, claims it has a strength of a million workers. This apart, the BKS, its key union, says it has some three lakh workers. These workers cut across communities—as the BKS saying goes, "the workers community is one"—but old Shiv Sena tenets still hold good. For instance, the sons-of-the-soil movement, which revolved around an economic agenda, continues: employment for the local populace is a priority.
The core of the Sena's demands, and the very spirit around which it grew, is also the main objective of the Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti (SLS). Its name conveys its purpose, and the samiti has continued to effectively articulate the demand that 80 per cent of all jobs in government, banks and the corporate sector be given to Maharashtrians. The SLS does not stop at this—it also insists, among other things, that candidates should know Marathi and jobs should be advertised in Marathi dailies. The SLS works in tandem with the Sena unions.
Riding piggyback on the demand that Maharashtrians be given priority, the SLS has moved into banks, insurance companies, the ONGC, Air-India, Indian Airlines, a number of shipping companies, the Mazgaon dock and the Naval dock. The SLS, headed by state minister Sudhir Joshi, who is the chief minister's nephew and a trusted lieutenant of Thackeray, has also initiated a number of training courses to prepare Maharashtrian candidates for job-related examinations and interviews. Notice boards at the party's headquarters, Sena Bhawan, regularly announces courses which prepare candidates for various jobs.
The Sena, which came to power saying it would find jobs for 27 lakh unemployed youth, is putting together a scheme to create jobs. That will be one more step in the direction that the Sena took 30 years ago: protecting and promoting the employment rights of the sons of the soil.
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