Trade union actions and opportune times

Trade unions in the health sector have put off their strike last week which they had been continuing for several weeks. They have been making several demands including one to rectify the anomalies in their salary scales. They might have been encouraged to launch a strike at this juncture by the recent successful trade union action by the principals and teachers of state sector schools. 

Unlike in the case of the agitations by the principals and teachers, the health sector employees did not attract the sympathy of the public and nobody seemed to openly support their strike, even in social media. This can be attributed to people suffering a lot due to this strike action. In fact it is the trade union actions in the health sector that worst affect the common man. They claim lives of the ordinary people and not the authorities who are responsible for these salary anomalies or any other issues that affect the striking employees.

It does not mean that the people are against this trade union action in general. People are not against the workers winning their rights. In fact nobody goes against the right of the workers to strike, if the demands are reasonable. Neither has anybody the right to deprive them or employees of any other sector of that right. Right to strike and other trade union actions are hard won and not something that has been given to the workers on a platter by the employers or any government. These rights have been won by the working people in any country through struggles waged for decades. It was well-known that the right to eight-hour work was accepted universally after the famous struggle by the workers of American city of Chicago in 1886 during which nine lives of workers were lost. 
In Sri Lanka also it was through a series of struggles by the Colombo launderers, Kurunegala butchers and Jaffna cigar wrappers in 1896, workers from Royal Engineering Department in 1897, Colombo carters in 1898 and 1906, boatmen in Colombo harbour and printing workers in 1901 as well as the more organised struggles in later years under the aegis of the Sri Lanka’s leftist movement the workers’ rights were established and recognized by law. These include the rights to economic concessions, proper working conditions and also rights to demand rights through trade union actions such as strikes. However, this long journey was not a bed of roses. Struggles by the workers, especially those from the plantation sector have claimed so many lives. 

Therefore, one cannot demean the rights of the workers to strike or launch any other trade union action. Nevertheless, unlike the carter’s strike or the boatmen’s strike waged in early 20th century, it is the ordinary people who are first to be hit and severely affected by the present day trade union actions. In other words, the working class has to first hit the members of their own class directly in order for the authorities concerned to feel the heat. In the State sector, authorities are not affected economically at all by any trade union action, as they in turn put the burden of financial losses incurred due to the trade action on the people who already have suffered directly by the trade union action. They are affected only in term of popularity, if the trade actions are dragged on for weeks or months. 

Ironically, the success of a trade union action is measured by the degree of people being affected by those actions. A strike in the health sector is considered successful by the striking trade unions by the number of deaths occurred or other serious issues faced by the people during the strike. Even during the recent health sector strike, few deaths occurred in hospitals were attributed to it. This is depriving the people of their rights, especially the right to life – the most valued right. Hence, the trade unions have an enormous responsibility to think twice before taking trade actions, as they too do not have any right to deprive others of their rights. Those actions should be the last resort and have the minimum impact on others’ rights. 

It is customary for the authorities to claim that the time is not opportune for trade union actions, as they did during the war and at the height of the COVID 19 pandemic. For them, the opportune time for such actions is only in the eternity. However, there are times that are not appropriate for drastic trade union actions such as strikes, like the one that the country is passing through now with an unprecedented shortage of fuel, gas, electricity and many essential items, bringing the life close to a situation of standstill. We witness the frustration and anger given vent to by the people in various parts of the island every day. Trade union leaders must consider the possibility of their actions at such a time backfiring, giving the authorities to bring in laws to suppress trade union actions for good.