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The 24th All India Conference ofFMRAI, that takes place within theconscious routine of democraticpractice, once in every three years,was a massive organisational eventspread over four days, from 4th to 7thFebruary 2016.It was hosted byKMSRA and in the city of Ernakulam.

The conference started with hostingof FMRAI’s flag by the President R.Viswanathan and by paying floraltribute to the martyrs’ column by theleaders of FMRAI and the fraternalunions and organizations.

The Rally: Thousand red flagssprouted in the streets of Ernakulam inthe afternoon hours of 4th February.Hundreds of medical and salesrepresentatives from across thecountry and from all corners of Keralajoined this rally which was a riot ofcolours, mixing folk dance and folk

24th Conference of FMRAI, 4th to 7th February, 2016, Ernakulam

Thumping red flags took over the city

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music of Kerala with the footsteps of thecomrades from all parts of the country.Kochi (Ernakulam), which is fondlycalled as the ‘Queen of Arabian Sea’,created link in 14th century, betweenwestern coast of India with all parts ofthe country and the world.This time, itunited the Arabian Sea with the Bay ofBengal, the Aravalli Range with theEastern Ghats, and blendedvernacular of the foothills of Himalayawith that of the Western Ghats.Delegates from different states likeAndhra Pradesh (APMSRU),Telengana (TMSRU), Karnataka(KMS&SRA), Kerala (KMSRA),TamilNadu(TNMSRA) Maharashtra(MSMRA), Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MPMSRU), Gujarat(GSMRA), Goa (Goa MRA), UttarPradesh and Uttarakhand(UPMSRA), Himachal Pradesh(HPMRA), Punjab and Chandigarh(PCMSRU), Odisha (OSRU), Bihar-Jharkhand (BSSRU), North EasternStates (CRU) West Bengal(WBMSRU), Delhi (DSMRO),Haryana (HSMSRU), HimachalPradesh (HPMRA) shouted slogansin English and vernacular languagesand marched with energy in the streetsof Kochi with flags and banners withheight of spirit of unity. Hundreds offeet marched together. In a country witha huge population of 120 Crores, therally gathered, minimized andexemplified the diversity of this nationand united the races, the castes andthe religions. Entire nation fitted into thekernel of a corn that FMRAI is. Thepeople witnessed all the diversities thatIndia is and all the enthusiasm thatFMRAI’s 24th Conference was.

CITU, Insurance employees,DYFI,SFI and other mass organizationsand trade unions of the city greeted therally at various points in the entire pathof the procession.

Field workers of two divisions,Pharma Care and Stancare of SunPharma (SPIL) resorted to two dayssuccessful strike on February 25 and26 and a massive demonstration andgate meeting was held in front of theHead Office , Mumbai which wasaddressed by the council leadershipand FMRAI leaders. Dharna by SPILmembers and demonstrations werealso held before the companyestablishments at Indore, Lucknow,Guwahati, Vijayawada, Chennai,Kolkata, Patna, Bangalore, Ranchi,Hyderabad, Cuttack, Jaipur, Vadodara,Ernakulam by the members of council

SPIL field workers are in war path

sub-committee. Extensive Campaign tothe doctors/stockists was undertakenacross the country wearing “Badges”.The main demands of the strike were “immediate negotiations on the pendingCharter of Demands, resolution ofpending 54 victimisations, immediatemeeting of Central GrievanceCommittee, release of illegally deductedwages, stop harassments and abusivelanguage by the managers and stopunfair marketing activities”. In Kolkata,the gate meeting, attended by thestriking field workers of SPIL and thecouncil sub- committee members wasaddressed by state convener- Subrata

Bhattacharya, Zonal Convener-Malay Bhowmick, from FMRAI,Santanu Chatterjee, GeneralSecretary; Partha Rakshit,, Treasurerand from WBMSRU Partha Ray,Secretary & Sumahan Chakraborty,General Secretary, addressed. Themeeting was presided by Sumit Roy.As reported earlier the mergerbetween SPIL and Ranbaxy tookplace in March 2015. During thehearing or the merger scheme, FMRAIraised certain objections in the Punjaband Haryana High Court on the jobtransfer, removal of certain clause of13(B) of the merger scheme andcontinuation of the working and serviceconditions and also the variousagreements signed between themanagement and the CGC. Both, SunPharma and Ranbaxy managementsubmitted in the court that they will followall validly signed agreements, only thename of the company will be changedand rest will continue to remain as it isand they will follow all laws of the landincluding the labour laws. Sun Pharmaalso filed an additional affidavit in thecourt for this purpose.

A meeting on Uniform Code forPharmaceutical Marketing Practiceswas called by Department ofPharmaceuticals (Ministry ofPetrochemicals) on February17;2016.The meeting was attended bytwo secretaries and one jointsecretary of the governmentdepartment. Meeting was alsorepresented by different stake holdersviz. Dinesh Abrol (Delhi ScienceForum), Amitava Guha & Narendra

‘Uniform Code For PharmaceuticalMarketing Practices’

Punish the offenders : FMRAI

See page-2

Gupta (both from Jana SwasthaAbhiyan), Meera Shiva (All IndiaDrug Action Network) and Saroja(CAG) and FMRAI was representedby President- R. Viswanathan andSecretary- T. Kameshwar Rao.

FMRAI was invited by thegovernment as a stake holder for thefirst time, because it is organising andspearheading the nationwide agitationand campaign against unethical

See page-3

Strike & Demonstration in Sun Pharma, Kolkata

The delegate session Calendar 2016Secretariat meeting – 4-5 March,

21-22 May, 23-24 July, 17-18December. Working Committeemeeting - 18-19 June at Kolkata

All India Council Sub-Committeemeeting – 16 June, Kolkata

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Twenty fourth Conference of FMRAI, held at Ernakulam, Kerala, during 4-7 February, professedthe direction of the future movement of the field workers in the context of the fierce attack unleashedby the employers, backed by the central government’s policies and the agenda of communaldivisive machination brought by Sangh Parivar and its outfits with active support of the ModiGovernment. 920 delegates from all over the country critically assessed the travelled path betweentwenty third to twenty fourth conference, from Kolkata to Kochi ; exhibited once again their commitment,enriched the report, exercised democracy, decided future course to counter the newer challengesin days to come and finally concluded and pledged on the basic catchphrase of the conference‘unity struggle and unity’.

Twenty fourth Conference of FMRAI was commemorated in a befitting manner; the culture ofKerala impregnated with trade union essence, has consummated it laying a new mile stone.

Twenty fourth conference draws up clear conclusions in different areas of enormous importance.The conference decided to lift to a new height the policy related movement on demands of statutoryworking rule for all field workers in the country , on the demand of initiation of appropriate discussionin the tri-partite committee re-constituted by the present central government and against government’spolicy of allowing unrestricted profiteering by the pharmaceutical companies causing relentlessescalation of medicine prices (making healthcare and medicine beyond the reach of commonpeople) and also against government’s attempt in creating ground for predatory patent regimediluting the Indian Patent Act, against attempt of destruction of self-reliance and demolition ofdomestic Pharma industry including public sector by way of 100% FDI and freedom of aggressionfor MNCs in the country and against the menace of unethical marketing by the pharma companies;The conference resolved to heighten the movement against those companies, bringing down fierceattack on trade union, like Sun Pharma, Torrent, Geno etc.; The conference also resolved inintensifying the movement on the basic ‘right to work’ and on the right of working in medicalinstitutions in consonance with to the law of the land, on the issue of field workers identity , 8 hours’work and minimum wages .

The conference gave a call to organize the vast number of OTPI field workers, who are theworst sufferer in the present situation of marketing system. Twenty fourth Conference concluded tore-organize and consolidate the sub units, sub unit level council sub committees which are theareas of implementation to meet the demand of the day. The Agenda of Action updated in twenty-fourth conference, gave clear direction in advancing the ongoing movements and further definedthe basic approach to consolidate the organization to match the situation.

With the neo liberal economic changes, backed by the central government, the aggression of theMNCs and the Indian monopolies has increased by many folds. On the one hand it uttering theaxiom of ‘make in India’ but on the other hand it is creating favourable conditions for MNCsbetraying interest of the nation and that of the domestic pharmaceutical industry and has unfurledthe fierce attacks on the field workers, in all possible ways.

The new attack on field workers is being manefested as threat to the occupation of sale promotionand an outright aggression against their right to work in hospitals & institutions.

In this background, conference gave call to strengthen the united common resistance to defeatthe flag bearers of the neo liberal policies, the divisive forces and to resist attack on democracy anddemocratic structures of the country and to support the left- democratic forces in 5 states in theforthcoming assembly elections in general and to sharpen the industry wise movement of the fieldworkers in specific.

Twenty fourth Conference of FMRAI will be marked as the whistle blower to prepare theorganization very fast to face and counter the multifarious challenges before the organization.

Clarion Call of

24th Conference of FMRAI

SPIL field workers are in war pathfrom page-1

Sun Pharma organized a CGC meeting inJune 2016 and discussed the grievances of theSPEs. Now, it is proved beyond doubt that SunPharma accepted all these conditions undercompulsion for the purpose of smooth merger. On17th November 2015, management issued noticeof termination of the existing wage settlement andillegally terminated all other agreements andsettlements. On 18th Nov 2016, managementtransferred 54 SPEs to distant places. Out of these54 SPEs, 28 are in the council leadership includingthe Joint AIC and Secretary FMRAI, SanjeevKhadelwal.

Protesting the mass transfers and the attack onthe council leadership ,Sun Pharma(SPIL)fieldworkers resorted to flash strike on 27th

November 2016. The strike was total and strikingworkers and members of FMRAI stageddemonstration and dharna before the establishmentsof the company. For the first time Sun Pharmamanagement witnessed the protest of ownemployees including the strike. December11, 2015,members of FMRAI observed “Anti Sun PharmaDay” by wearing badges during the fieldwork andcampaigned among the doctors.

The AIC, AICC and Secretariat finalized themovemental approach of Sun Pharma struggle.The organized council in two divisions will pursuetheir demands through agitationally and legally forthe logical conclusion. The council sub-committeewill support the movement of the SPIL council andalso take independent initiative through campaignand demonstration. Massive campaign among allmembers and non-members of FMRAI, targetingespecially all Sun Pharma employees will be thefirst phase. Further campaign among the doctorsexplaining the issues and campaign amongst centraltrade unions seeking their support and taking upthe issue to ILO continues. The objective of thecampaign is to expose the unfair marketing of theSun Pharma. During December & January,protesting against the unfair labour practices of theSun Pharma, field workers of SPIL boycotted lunchand tea and carried out non-cooperationprogramme successfully, across the country during

cycle meetings. Management called off cyclemeetings at various places and those field workerswere called individually at H.O. and werethreatened. Management has also unlawfullydeducted the salaries for 15-20 days for all,wherever meetings were called off. State and subunit council sub-committee staged demonstrationsbefore the establishments of Sun Pharma duringJanuary18-23, 2016. Meanwhile fraternal tradeunions have been approached for their solidarity.

Ernakulam FMRAI Conference hasunanimously resolved to heighten the movementagainst Sun Pharma by SPIL field workers withinthe company and by council sub-committee fromoutside.During this period, pre-strike programmesincluding campaign to doctors, memorandumsubmission to the managers were successfullyimplemented by council sub-committee throughoutthe country. Series of programmes including oneday strike in April involving all fieldworkers of SunPharma and H.O. Dharna programmes in Junehave been decided. Fund for legal expenditureare being raised by SPIL fieldworkers. In legalarena, against the malafide transfer of 54 activists,a case was filed under MRTU & PULP Act inIndustrial Court, Mumbai. FMRAI has moved toBombay High Court against the order of theindustrial court. A petition has also been filed byFMRAI at Punjab & Haryana High Court onviolation of the undertaking submitted by SunPharma management earlier, during the processof amalgamation and merger of the two companies.

SPIL management’s fierce attacks on the fieldworkers has crossed all parameters of unfair labourpractices and the same is nothing but a manifestationof neoliberal attack let loose by the corporate world,with the backing of crony model of politician in power-bureaucrat-corporate nexus, on the workers andemployees. Surprisingly, we have noted that thearchitect of such inhuman model, that acquiringcompanies for more business and more profit throughexpropriations, curbing the law of the land, has beenawarded “Padmahsree” by the Modi Government.A massive protest ,encompassing voices of maximumforums is the call of the hour today in order to give alesson to such inhuman and anti-worker model.

The newly elected working committeein the 24th Conference of FMRAI

The secretariat membersPresident R. Viswanathan.

Vice Presidents D. M. Deshpande, Shiv Awasthi,K. M. Surendran, P. K. Roy,Sumahan Chakraborty.

General Secretary Santanu Chatterjee.

Jt. General Secretaries Deepak Bhattacharya, K. B. Kadam.

Treasurer Partha Rakshit.

Secretaries Aniruddha Chowdhury, Pranab Kr. Ray, Sanjay Chatterjee,T. Kameshwar Rao, Naveen Gupta, P.N. Subrahmaniun,S. Khandelwal, Ramesh Sunder, R. P. Singh and Arnab Nag.

The working committee membersA G Rajamohan, S. G. U. D. Krishna, U.V. Krishnaiah, P. S. Sekhara Reddy (APMSRU),

I. Raju Bhatt, K. Sunil Kumar, P. Murali, (TMSRU), Anirban Bose, Ashim Kumar Haldar, AnupamKumar, Biswajit Deb, Debashis Roy, Manoj Choudhary (BSSRU), Rahul Purakayastha, JaminiBarbaruah, Joydip Nath (CRU), N. Kaushal (HPMRA), A. Kurian George, V. V. Raja, SurjeetKumar, Mohan C Nair, M. M. Haneefa, P. Krishnanand (KMSRA), Raju Hiramath (GOAMRA),M. N. Dattani (GSMRA), C. B. Kulkarni, A. Jayaganesh (KSM&SRA), S K Talukdar, SailendraSharma, Devroop Biswas, Anurag Saxena (MPMSRU), Ritesh Shah, S. K. Patel, T. V. Sridhar,Vivek Sawant, Deepak Papdeja, Narendra Singh (MSMRA), B. N. Sahoo, Subhankar Das,B. K. Das (OSRU), Gyaneshwar Choudhary, Rakesh Galav, Anjani Sharma ,J. S. Naruka(RMSRU) S. Gopinathan, H. Sriram, F. J. Jerome, V. Vasudevan, C. Prabhakar Devadoss(TNMSRA), Hemant Kr. Singh, Sheshnath Tewari, Rakesh Pandey, Sanjay Narang,S. C. Awasthi, R. K. Srivastava, Neeraj Srivastava (UPMSRA), Naginder Kumar (PCMSRU),Sisir Saha, Rabin Deb, Debasish Chatterjee, Madan Das, Partha Ray, Pratish Bhowmick,Sasanka Mouli Roy, Basab Roychowdhry, Sanjay Sen, Sumit Ray, Partha Sarkar, DebotoshChakraborty, Arpita Mitra Roy (WBMSRU)

10 Resolutions adopted in the 24th conferenceAgainst attacks on trade union right by Elder and Torrent management, Supporting left, democratic

and secular forces in the ensuing assembly elections in 5 states, Against growing communalization andintolerance, On Industrial Tripartite Committee, Against changes in labour laws and attack ontrade union rights, Movement to defend the country, its ailing people and the fieldworkers, Againstexploitation and victimisation of other industry fieldworkers, On public sector companies in pharmaceuticalindustry, Against anti-labour policies of Sun Pharma, Against unfair labour practices of Geno management.

5th consecutive and successful servicesettlement in TTK has been signed immediatelyafter 24th conference of FMRAI, on February 10,in Chennai. Representing the management, D. J.Parthasarthy, Sr. Vice President; V. Sivakumar,Vice-President; K. Narayanan, G.M.; KishorVasant Majumder, D.G.M , M. Murugan and onbehalf of FMRAI’s Committee, K. K. Mittal, AvijitBoise, Rajeeva S. Pandey, V. B. Pathak, K. V.Ajith Kumar and. Sanjay Kumar signed thesettlement. The settlement comes into effect fromJanuary 1, 2015 and shall remain in force tillDecember 31, 2017. This settlement is significantin many aspects. 74 more SPEs have beenbrought under the coverage of the settlement,signed for total 306 MSRs. The minimum andmaximum quantum of benefits is Rs. 2544 and Rs.

Settlement signed in TTK6909 respectively per month .One more gradehas been created in the basic pay scale and VDAhas been increased to Rs. 1.45 per point. A newhead of Vehicle Maintenance Allowance has beenintroduced. Furthermore, there has been upwardrevision in the rates of Annual Increment in theexisting all grades, rates of HRA, amount of LTA,Kit allowance and also in education allowance. TheDaily Allowance has been increased by Rs. 15from January, 2016.The fifth service settlement has been signed underthe provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Thesettlement opens a new chapter in the history ofmovements of FMRAI and establishes the fact ofdeveloping industrial relationship for mutual benefits.A separate MOU has been signed relating to dayto day work

Comrade J. N. Bhattacharya, former Vice-President of WBMSRU breathed his last on 13th

February, 2016 in a nursinghome at Kolkata, after a briefperiod of illness. He had playeda pivotal role for the merger oftwo unions in West Bengalleading to the formation ofWBMSRU in 1984. He took alead role in consolidating the field

workers of the other than pharma industry in easternpart of the country under FMRAI. He was in leadershipin the employees’ union in his company, TOMCO.After retirement from his job, he fully involved himselfin mass and democratic movement in the state.FMRAI expresses heartfelt condolence to hisbereaved family.

O b i t u a r y

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24th Conference of FMRAI 24th Conference of FMRAI 24th Conference of FMRAI

Open Session started after the rally on 4thevening. A. K. Padmanabhan, President, CITUinaugurated the 24th Conference of FMRAI byaddressing the open session. FMRAI President,R. Viswanathan presided over the session. A. K.Padmanabhan severely criticized neo liberaleconomic policy and the anti-people policies ofthe Central Government and lambasted thecommunal divide that the present regime issponsoring at the dictate of Sangh Parivar. Heslammed at the policies of the CentralGovernment which failed to protect theimpoverished, the common people and causingdevastation to the life and livelihood of thefarmers and the workers. He censured theGujarat Government as it failed to implement thefood security Act. Condemned, in no indefiniteterm, the attack and atrocities unleashed by rulingTrinamool Congress in West Bengal and byRSS-BJP combine in rest of the country includingthe state of Kerala. He greeted the workingpeople of the country in general and themembers of FMRAI in particular for making theSeptember 2, 2015, All India Strike totallysuccessful. He called upon field workers to takea lead role in resisting the neoliberal onslaughtand defending the country from the impendingdanger of communalism.

In presidential speech R.Viswanathanexplained the situation in the pharmaceuticalIndustry and other industries in the veryperspective of the economic and political situationin the country. He narrated the situation, in whichthe field workers movement aspires to expandand intensify. He explained the background inwhich the agenda of the 24th conference was set.Alok Banerjee, General secretary FMRAI calledupon for building up the organization, inconformity with the need of the hour, in everysphere of attack unleashed by the employers andthe government. The open session was alsoaddressed by M. M. Lawrence , veteran tradeunion leader and Vice President CITU ChandranPillai, State Secretary, CITU, K A Jacob and K NGopinath (President and Secretary, CITU,Ernakulam District) M. K. Gangadharan, Sr. VicePresident, IMA, Sreekumar, State President,Confederation of Central Government Employees,Nandakumar, All India President , BEFI, PHMIsmail, State Secretary, State GovernmentEmployees Federation , M. K. Unhikrishnan,State Vice President, All India InsuranceEmployees Associations , O.M. Abdul Jaleel State,Treasurer , All Kerala Chemists and DruggistAssociation and Mohan C. Nair, GeneralConvener, Reception Committee. K M Surendran,President, KMSRA, presented vote of thanks.

The Delegate SessionThe Open Session

Voice of the NationGlimpses of Discussion in the Conference

There was lively discussion on reports and the agenda ofaction. Most of the delegates spoke in prose style but still somespoke in the language of lyric. Some of them recited poems, bothHindi and Urdu, to make their points more emphatic.

OrganisationOn Membership: The lauded objective of one lakh has to be

pursued strongly and with energy and enthusiasm. Record ofmembership has to be maintained at all level. Special initiative has tobe planned for all the big and metro cities across the country. Concretescheme needs to be chalked out to enroll more and more membersfrom several Industries other than pharmaceutical industry (OTPI).Periodic meeting of the subcommittee at all level and monitoring the‘tasks taken’ seems to be the key of success. For a leap forward,implementation of the programmes in these areas needs to be gearedup. The dream objective of one lakh is possible and worthy ofattainment.

On Functioning: Considering uneven development specialinitiative needed to be taken for weaker areas. More lively contactbetween the State body and the local units and its monitoring byFMRAI, is the need of the hour. Zonal Committees should meet at closeand regular interval and be made more functional and function-oriented.More initiative and attention is to be given for timely, regular and ‘informative’publications of FMRAI News. Through all these efforts and endeavourwe have to attract young generation field workers towards the organisationand movement. To meet the challenge of the contemporary situation,workshop has to be organised for equipping the existing cadres andshaping new cadres. Integration of council unity and general unity is theneed of the hour. Conventional style of functioning is insufficient in present-day context. In facing the current situation, appropriate changes infunctioning is necessary. Such changes will bear fruit when it is backed-up by collective functioning and democratic functioning at every level.

In implementation area, mid-term review of Road Map seems tobe useful for more successful implementation. Timely intervention bythe higher committees and the All India centre, whenever andwherever it is required, will add to the vibrancy and vitality of theorganisation. It was suggested that WCMs and All India council leaders

should get themselves duly involved in the agitational programmes(and organisational activities) in their respective states and the sub-units.

MovementOn Council Movement:. While grouping the companies general

and specific criteria should be set that will help building organisationand movement in a particular and in a specific group of companies.Situation also demands that the United Platform of 139 companies iscreated. Review and assessment of council movement, in group ofcompanies or in individual company, requires to be based on the basicof 5 cardinal points.

Campaign should be conducted amongst the members to makethem aware of the menace of denial of rights. Abject rejection of right isoften reflected in various forms of e reporting and by way of ‘report lock’etc. Members should also be made aware of cybercrime (which is alsorelevant in defending rights).

On Policy level movement: Country-wide agitation should belaunched with the demand to Central Government so that the tripartitecommittee meeting is convened with concrete agenda. Besides this,justifying the established reputation of FMRAI in championing the issuesof the masses, we need to build-up strong movement in the area ofmedicine related demands of the people. We have to plan agitationalprogramme on such issues of the people throughout the year.

MiscellaneousOn Situation in Bengal: People in the state of West Bengal are

denied hard-earned democratic rights achieved through militant people’sstruggle over a long period of time. There is enormous increase in theinstances attack on life and honour of woman in the state. Crime againstwomen has increased manifold in last four and half years of TMC rule.Attack on the life and property of Left Front workers and their familymembers has increased enormously in recent period. Rise of GoondaRaj has made the law and order situation collapse in the state. There hasnever been a single death due to hunger and poverty during Left frontregime. In recent period scores of people have died of starvation andhunger in different parts of West Bengal including the Tea Plantationworkers in North Bengal. Both urban and rural poor have been underserious economic distress in this period under TMC rule.

The delegate session, from 5th February, 2016 to 7th February,2016, was held at Fine Arts Auditorium, Ernakulam (named asGeorgeVarghese Manch and P K Ganguly Nagar) was presided over by thePresident and all Vice Presidents. The session was inaugurated byElamaram Kareem, State General Secretary CITU, Kerala.

Draft reports of the General Secretary along with the updatedAgenda of action 2016 placed by Alok Banerjee and Treasurer’sreport was placed by Partha Rakshit. Ten resolutions were adoptedunanimously. (see resolutions). 49 delegates from different stateunits and 10 delegates from All India Council Subcommittee discussedon the draft reports and on the Agenda of Action 2016.

Messages greeting the delegates and wishing success of theconference, form veteran comrade, L. N. Chakraborty and twoformer general secretaries J. S. Majumder and D.P.Dubey, was

conveyed by the steering committee during the course of the plenarysession.

Special session, held on 6th February 206, was addressed byTapan Sen, All India General Secretary, CITU. On conclusion ofdiscussion, General Secretary and Treasurer replied on behalf of theworking committee.

Both the reports were adopted unanimously. Credential reportwas also unanimously adopted. The conference elected the workingcommittee and including 20 members of the secretariat withR.Viswanathan as President, Santanu Chatterjee as GeneralSecretary and Partha Rakshit as Treasurer..

The entire conference proceedings were the expression ofdemocratic functioning, deep commitment towards working class valuesand unity in action, notwithstanding diversity of thoughts and opinions.

‘Uniform Code For Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices’from page-1

marketing practices.The government representatives have also called separate meeting with

industry representatives on 19th February, 2016.In the meeting, the ministry has circulated a draft note on the subject as

decided in the last meeting and sought the suggestions and response fromthe stake holders. Accordingly, the participants have responded and submitteda note and placed all the points with proper explanation and examples.FMRAI representatives contributed by giving live examples on the subjectand submitted certain documents including that of Sun Pharma. After listeningto them, if they require further inputs, they may convene another meeting.The Government representatives present in the meeting confirmed that theyare going to bring this in the form of a statutory code from April 1,2016 onwards. They expressed their plan of completing the process ofconsultations and that of finalizing the draft before March 2016. It is to benoted that FMRAI, in consultation with other like-minded organisations, haspresented alternative proposals for ‘uniform code for pharmaceutical marketingpractices’ wherein punishment clause has been suggested to add teeth tothe statute The code, which is presently in vogue, is a voluntary code anddoes not have any punishment clause against violation of the code. It will bea significant development in the pharmaceutical industry if and when thiscode is made statutory with punishment clause that FMRAI is demandingsince long and fighting for. It is expected that our continuous persuasion willyield promising outcome.

24th Conference of FMRAI

The Credential Report920 delegates and 10 invitees

attended the conference. Among totalof 930 who attended the conference,911 were men and 19 werewomen.19 office bearers and 70WCM attended as ex-officio delegatesalong with 175 GCMs. Number of stateoffice bearers were 214 and numberof state committee members were 226while the rest were from subunitleadership. 73 All India Convener/Jt.All India Convener, 134 ZonalConvener/Jt. Zonal Conveners and336 State Conveners/Jt. Convenersattended.

897 comrades were fromPharmaceuticals and 9 from industries

other than pharmaceuticals(the rest notmentioned).736 employed in Indiancompanies, 121 employed inMultinational companies, 10 comradesemployed in Public sector companiesand the rest of the comradesemployed in small scale sectorcompanies.

79 comrades who attended theconference were victimized by theiremployers.

358 comrades were of age 40 orbelow (among them 48 were of age30 or below) 19 comrades were ofage of 61 or above while the rest ofthe comrades were of the agebetween 41 and 60 years.

All India convention of Women field workers

at Ernakulam4th All India Convention of women

field workers held on February 4, onthe eve of 24th FMRAI conference atErnakulum ,Mahakavi G Auditoriumwas attended by 111 delegates fromKerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana,Tamilnadu, West Bengal, MadhyaPradesh – Chhattisgarh andMaharashtra. Inaugurating theconvention P. K. Sreemathy Teacher,veteran parliamentarian expressedher concern about the genderdiscrimination and atrocities againstwomen in India. She dealt with, atlength, the problems of women andworking women in particular. 11delegates discussed on the noteplaced by Arpita Mitra Roy,

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24th Conference of FMRAI

slogan turns out to be a contradictionin terms. Furthermore, this slogan isbeing abused as a deception to changethe labour laws earned throughrelentless struggle by the working class.Things have come to such a pass thatthe ruling class cannot survive withoutdeception and fraud. Identifying the classenemy at this juncture is an importantstep towards class consciousness. Allgovernmental policies are designed witha single motive to attack the workingclass. The proposed laws, factory actamendment bills pending for theparliament to discuss are planned tokeep aside 70% of the workers outsidethe ambit of country’s work force legallyempowered to fight and gain their rights.The central government while followingthe diktat of International finance capitalhas formed a heinous nexus with theemployers. Food and medicine beingthe two sectors with possibility of unlimited

Reminding the significance ofholding the 24th conference atErnakulam; the seat of militant tradeunion movement in relation toFMRAI’s glorious role in pursuanceof the sales promotion employees’cause, Tapan Sen, in his deliberationclarified the present conditionsuccinctly and elaborated on ourtask ahead. The present situation-he explained- is the fallout ofdeepening crisis of internationalfinance capital leading torestructuring of the work force byacquisition and merger to shift theentire burden on the working class.Demand of the hour is introspectionof the local issues in its internationalperspective without which workerswill fail to comprehend the gravity ofthe situation. In the backdrop of thecountry’s industrial output remainingunderutilised, the ‘make in India’

profiteering, the international capital ispouncing and consolidating its positionin these sectors through merger andacquisitions. It is a saga of joblessgrowth where immense moneychanges hands without creating anyemployment. Even the Governmentof India is earning money by sellingpublic sector units as a strategy nippingthe possibility of future employment.Our primary task today therefore is toexpose the capitalist system thatenmeshes the society. By campaignand mobilisation at grassroots,organization should educate workersso that workers’ protest-movementturns into a war of resistance. Ourendeavour should be unity of classconscious workers as we increaseour membership to expand ourorganisation. This is an initiative weneed to seriously address. Theexisting economic structurecontinuously reduces theremuneration of the workers coupledwith recruitment of contractual labourand unorganised labour force. As ifthis was not enough the ruling classhas resorted to perpetrating divisiveculture. The conscious working classhas no choice but to fight out this culturaloppression as well. Trade Unionactivity ought to go counter-offensiveagainst this separatism and forge allthe fighting people for a workers’ unityin the country. As a vanguard of thesociety, the working class is pledged tobroaden the vision and expand thehorizon of class movement.

Fight the twin danger togetherCombat divisive forces, fight neoliberal offensive: Tapan Sen

Convener- Women CoordinationCommittee. The problems likematernity leave, discriminatory wageand sexual harassment at work placewere emphasized in the deliberations.The convention once again pledged

Women field workersat Ernakulam

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24th Conference of FMRAI 24th Conference of FMRAI

that FMRAI and its state units willcontinue to address such issues withpriority.

The convention suggestedprogrammes to popularise the 12 pointdemands and reach to those womenfield workers, not approached yet. Atwenty member committee waselected. Rosemary Wingstone, Shigiand Tandrima Nandy conducted theconvention.

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The rally General Convener of 24th conference addressing the open session

The mass meeting

Placement of General Secretary & Treasurer's report

Newly elected secretariat

Women field workers at rally

CITU General Secretary addressing special session.

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The rally