CONGRESS' TRADE UNION FACES DECLINE AMIDST FACTIONALISM

INTUC is losing its place in major international and national labour welfare bodies.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

While Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been raising issues related to the rights of workers and labourers, the Congress-affiliated trade union, Indian Trade National Union Congress (INTUC), is losing its relevance due to the failure on the part of the Congress leadership to enforce its decisions on the various factions operating within the body.

This factionalism has cost the trade body a place in major international and national labour welfare bodies that impact the fate of millions of workers in India.

Recently, when the Central government reconstituted the all-important Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), there was no representative from INTUC, which is regarded as the largest union in the country, in the said body. Representatives from other trade bodies including from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Communist Party of India (M)-affiliated Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Trade Union Coordination Centre, Self Employed Women’s Association, National Front of Indian Trade Union were part of the trustee list.

In 2016, Government of India had stopped including INTUC in government panels after several groups started sending their representatives for a place in these panels, each claiming themselves as the real INTUC.