On September 14, 2009, a National Workers Convention was organized in New Delhi’s Mavlankar Hall. Over 1500 trade union activists belonging to different Central Trade Unions, as well as leaders of unaffiliated federations such as those of bankmen, railwaymen and electricity workers participated in this Convention. A delegation of the Mazdoor Ekta Committee also participated in this convention.

For the first time after over 27 years, leaders of all the Central Trade Unions have decided to work that their organizations must collaborate in the interest of the working class. They appealed to their activists to extend this collaboration to the states, and to the shop floors.

The Convention decided that an All India Protest Day would be organized on October 28, 2009. State level conventions would be organized in the different states.

The Convention focused on five issues:

1. Massive price rise of essential commodities and need for measures to control the price rise and protect working masses from the price rise.
2. Continuing job losses resulting in loss of livelihood to millions of workers across all sectors and measures to protect workers.
3. Non implementation and rampant violation of basic labour laws pertaining to minimum wages, working hours, social security, safety in workplace, trade union rights etc throughout the country adding to the suffering of the workers.
4. The failure of the Unorganised workers Social Security Act to provide any substantive relief to the vast number of workers not covered by labour laws and declared as unorganized workers.
5. Move of the government for disinvestment of shares in profit making Central Public Sector Enterprises.

1. Universal PDS and containing of speculation in commodity market as necessary to control the price rise and its impact on the working masses
2. Ensuring job protection and job creation by linking the stimulus package to entrepreneurs with job protection, and by public investment in infrastructure.
3. Stringent punitive measures for those violating labour laws, and ensuring the strict enforcement of these laws.
4. Ensuring that (a) the division in the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act between workers below poverty line and above poverty line is ended, and creation of a national fund to ensure a floor level social security to all workers who are not covered by basic labour laws.
5. No disinvestment of shares of profit making PSU’s, their surplus must be reinvested for expansion and modernisation and for revival of loss making PSU’s.

MEL considers the getting together of all the central trade unions and federations to take up some of the burning concerns of the working class and toiling masses is a positive development.  In the past two and half decades, the bourgeoisie has, as part of its program of globalization through liberalization and privatisation greatly intensified the exploitation of the working class. It has pursued policies that have led to impoverishment of large sections of our people, even while it has amassed great wealth and is striving to become a world class imperialist power. It has imposed divisions in the trade union movement through the control various of its parties have over the trade union centrals, and by lining up trade unions behind the parliamentary power games of this or that party, It is important in these conditions that along with developing a united struggle, working class activists cutting across party lines sum up the experiences of the past two and half decades, in order to overcome the weaknesses of the movement.