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60-A Charu Avenue • Kolkata-700 033 • Phone : (033)24242862 • Fax : (033)24244943 • www.fmrai.org • E-mail : fmrainews@gmail.com

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A massive two days’ strikeby more than 20,000 fieldworkers of Odisha, completelyparalyzed all sales promotionactivities across the state on 9and 10 December. The strikewas called in protest against thestate government’s gazettenotification dated 18September, during thependency of the writ petitionfiled by OSRU against Odishagovernment’s notification of 31August, 2013, which arbitrarilyprohibited sales promotionactivities in all governmenthospitals and medical collegesof the state violating laws of theland including Section 15 of theDrugs and Magic Remedies(Objectionable Advertisements)Act, 1954, SPE Act etc. andconventions. The statecommittee of OSRU, in itsmeeting held on 2 November,called upon all field workers ofthe state to participate in thestrike since the government’sorder would otherwise affect thelivelihood of thousands of salespromotion employees of thestate. All major district townsand cities of Odisha namelyAngul, Balasore, Berhampur,Bhubneswar, Bargarh,Bhawanipatna, Bhadrak,Baripada, Bolangir, Cuttack,Dhenkanal, Jeypore, Jajpur,

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Jharsuguda, Jagatsinghpur,Kendrapara, Keonjhar,Kesinga, Puri, Phulbani,Paralakhemundi, Rayagada,Rourkela, Sundargarh,Sonepur, Sambalpur andTitilagarh witnessed anunprecedented widespreadresponse of the striking fieldworkers.

Field workers, under thebanner of OSRU, startedagitating since February, 2013against an order (No. 05/Dev.Dated 12 February, 2013) of theRevenue DivisionalCommissioners (RDC) of theCentral and Southern divisionsof Odisha which debarred theirentry into the premises ofCapital Hospital, Bhubaneswar;SCB Medical College andHospital, Cuttack and MKCGMedical College and Hospital

Berhampur. The field workersstaged demonstrations andsubmitted memoranda to therespective offices of the RDCon 15 and 17 February, 2013.OSRU’s delegation met thelabour commissioner,government of Odisha on 21February on the issue. Further,a delegation led by CITU’s vicepresident Janardan Pati,FMRAI’s treasurer ParthaRakshit and OSRU’s generalsecretary Shubhankar Das metthe state’s health minister on 6March when the health ministersurprisingly expressed hisignorance about the issue.However, the joint secretary tothe government issued a memoon 19 March, 2013 to theadditional secretary togovernment, Health and Family

Central rally at Bhubaneswar

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Ending five years long disputes, inside field workers’strikes/struggles; movement of FMRAI’s united council’splatform from outside; in between interim relief award fromtribunal and, thereafter, off and on negotiations; finally,settlements of FMRAI’s two pending charters of demandsbetween Wyeth Limited and Consultative Committee of WyethField Workers were signed on 26 November, 2014 for all FMRAImembers designated as Professional Service Representatives/ Senior Professional Service Representatives (PSRs/Sr.PSRs). With this, around two decades’ old bilateral Industrialrelation between the Company and FMRAI, began in 1991,got de-railed in 2009has been put to railonce again.

FMRAI was arecognized union inWyeth, signed sixsuccessive servicesettlements for thefield workers, lastbeing on 29 July,2007. On expiry of thelast settlement,FMRAI submittedcharter of demands toWyeth on 26 April, 2010 which, after failure in conciliation, wasreferred by Maharashtra government to industrial tribunal (IT No.2 of 2012) for adjudication. On 23 August, 2013, the industrialtribunal directed the Company to grant ad-hoc increase of Rs.4000 per month to the fieldworkers as interim relief with effectfrom 1 October, 2013 till final disposal of the reference. On thenotional expiry of the charter of demands of 26 April, 2010, FMRAIsubmitted another charter of demands which is also pending inthe industrial tribunal. In the meantime, Pfizer acquired Wyethinternationally in 2009 whereas their legal mergers are yet to takeplace in India. The simultaneous bilateral discussion betweenmanagement and FMRAI’s committee which were taking placeresulted in the present settlements.

However, FMRAI’s charter of demands for the field workersof Pfizer component which was sent by Maharashtra governmentto industrial tribunal for adjudication remains pending.

��������Both the settlements were signed under the provisions of

Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.The first settlement was for threeyears, from 1 January, 2010 to 31 December, 2012 which wouldderive an average benefit of Rs. 5000 per field worker per monthwhereas the second settlement was from 1 January, 2013 to 31December, 2015 which would derive an average benefit of Rs.5500 per field worker per month.

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New Year GreetingsOn the occasion of New Year 2015, FMRAI

greets all the members of its units, leadersand members of fraternal organizations,medical practitioners, pharma traders, wellwishers and readers of FMRAI News andwishes a successful year ahead in allspheres of their respective activities.

In pursuance of theirdemands of the management forresolving the remaining 33transfer issues immediatelythrough discussion in WelfareCommittee meeting; payment ofoverdue wages; reimbursementof travel expenses and otherfinancial dues; and normalizationof sales promotion work, 373 fieldworkers of M/s ElderPharmaceuticals Limitedresorted to a day’s strike on 17December. On that day, Elderfield workers along with councilsubcommittee members stageddharnas and demonstrationsbefore the company’sestablishments in Punjab andChandigarh; Tamil Nadu;Maharashtra; Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand; North East Region;Gujarat; Andhra Pradesh-Telengana; Bihar-Jharkhand;

���� � ������� �� ��� ���Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh;Odisha; Rajasthan; Kerala andWest Bengal. Memoranda weresubmitted to the company’smanagement.

Following the bilateralunderstanding, reached andsigned on 20 September atMumbai between themanagement of Elder andFMRAI’s Welfare Committee forresolving 73 field workers’ masstransfer cases; payment of duesalaries and expenses; and re-opening of the web portal forreporting, FMRAI postponed theElder field workers’ March toMumbai programme. (seeFMRAI News, November,2014). Further, the WelfareCommittee through its letterdated 9 October urged upon themanagement to hold emergentmeeting for resolving remaining

transfers and other pendingissues. In its reply dated 20October, the managementdeclined to call such meeting andexpressed that any discussionwould defer at least for next sixmonths which may resumesubject to the company’s“performance”. FMRAIdisapproved the management’sunilateral decision and servednotice on 28 November forindustrial action includingstrike.

Moreover, managementwithheld salaries for a sectionof field workers since July /August and reimbursement ofexpenses since June, 2014 andsince October, 2014 for anothersection. The civil suit filedagainst Elder is being pursuedand the next date of hearing ison 16 January.

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�

���������� JANUARY 2015 �

FMRAI’s national working committee meeting held at Bhopal inNovember, 2014 decided massive mobilization of field workers beforeUS FDA (Food & Drug Administration) office at New Delhi in March,2015 against growing attack by the multinational drug companiesparticularly on the Indian drug companies on their export ofmedicines, on the Indian Patents law and on the Indian drug pricingregulatory authorities. FMRAI’s general council meeting (GCM)scheduled to be held in February at Jalgaon will concretize thedetails. Prior to this, as a part of mobilization and public campaign,field workers will observe Protest Day on 19 January all over thecountry. Against increasing market monopolization by themultinational drug cartel to impose patent regime through backdoor; against Central government’s appeasement policy towardsthese MNCs; and against high rise of medicine prices, massivemobilization of medical and sales representatives is planned beforeUSFDA office at Delhi in defence of country’s sovereignty, self-reliance in pharma sector and people of the country.

MNCs are desperate for their survival. They have lost substantialmarket in Europe, USA and in other industrially developed countriesdue to global economic meltdown and austerity measures byrespective governments particularly in healthcare sector. They havefurther became restive as an estimated $230-billion patented drugs(which they call ‘brands’) going out of patents in US by 2015 whichprompted them in search of newer markets and are, therefore, eyeingthe Indian pharma market to sell their off patented drugs (whichthey call ‘generics’). But the MNCs are finding it difficult due to thepresence of Indian laws, Indian regulatory system and strong Indiancompanies who export around 40% medicines to West.

The multinational aggressiveness is evident from series ofdevelopments in recent past. The powerful US drug lobby set upFDA offices in Delhi, Mumbai and in some other states and wants toapply US law in India. Using the FDA, MNCs are putting trade barriersfor Indian companies to export cheaper medicines manufactured inIndia on the plea that Indian medicines are ‘sub-standard’ andissued notices to major Indian drug exporters. Why US law willapply in India? The existing Indian law, DCGI, state drug controlauthorities are sufficient to penalize the producers of substandarddrugs. If there is weakness in the law, Indian Parliament shouldcorrect it. This is posing threat to country’s sovereignty.

Further, despite Indian Patents law was amended in 2005 tomake it TRIPS compliant, yet, under pressure from Obamaadministration, following Narendra Modi’s US trip, constituted athink tank on 24 October to draft the “National Intellectual PropertyRights Policy” replacing the three-member group of renownedacademics constituted in July and their draft national IPR policy!The constituents of the think tank, experts say, not only lackrequisite expertise, they have corporate allegiance and representcorporate law firms. One of the think tank members, Pratibha M.Singh, who represented Swedish company Ericsson in its patentinfringement case against Micromax; took brief for pharma majorGilead on Hepatitis C drug, Sovaldi, in Patent Controller’s Office inDelhi! Multinational drug cartels are exerting pressure on Indiangovernment to amend Patent law through backdoor ignoring IndianParliament, endangering country’s sovereignty and self-reliance.

On the drug pricing area, the mounted pressure of multinationaldrug lobby on the Indian government is clearly visible. Editorial ofNovember, 2014 issue of FMRAI News noted, “despite the high priceof medicines, Central government in phases diluted the price controlmechanism, the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) under pressurefrom drug lobby. Through DPCO, 2013, the Central government leftthe price determination to the market.” Just before Modi left for hisUS trip, Central government on 22 September withdrew its 10 Julyorder of NPPA which brought 108 formulations under price caps.Now, with slashing down of health budget by around 20%, hithertowhich was paltry 1% of GDP compared to 8.3% of USA or 3% ofChina, again under the influence of multinationals, the commonpeople will suffer the most.

Medical and sales representatives of the country under thebanner of FMRAI will continue to raise their voice to defeat theonslaughts of the multinationals together with other democraticand patriotic sections of the society.

Resist MultinationalAggression

Welfare Department “to lookinto the matter”.

After patient waiting for fourmonths, OSRU filed a writpetition in the High Court atCuttack on 23 July, 2013against the state of Odisha,represented through the ChiefSecretary, Odisha; theSecretary, Department ofHealth and Family Welfare,Odisha; the Revenue DivisionalCommissioner, SouthernDivision, Berhampur; and theSuperintendent, MKCG MedicalCollege and Hospital,Berhampur, Odisha against thesaid “order”. During thependency of the case in theHigh Court, the HealthSecretary, Government ofOdisha issued notification on 31August, 2013 promulgatingcomplete ban on the entry of thesales promotion employees inall government hospitals andmedical colleges. A state levelconvention on “Right to Work”was organized by OSRU on 28December, 2013 atBhubaneswar and a resolutionwas adopted deciding a day’sstrike on 15 January, 2014.Accordingly, the field workerswent on strike opposing thestate government’s prohibitoryorder on their rightful work;against the attack on professionand identity of the salespromotion employees; andignoring the labourcommissioner’s unlawful andaudaciously issued noticeagainst strike.

Under the abovebackground, the state

� �������������government’s gazettenotification dated 18 Septemberdemanded all round protest andthe field workers under thebanner of OSRU respondedbefittingly. Field workers, allover the country, extended their

solidarity to the striking fieldworkers of Odisha.

On 9 December, field workersin all districts except Cuttack andBhubaneswar staged massivepeaceful dharnas in front of thegovernment hospitals,organized huge rallies andsubmitted memoranda to theChief Minister throughrespective districtadministrations. On the day,more than 300 members ofCuttack and Bhubaneswarstaged dharna in front of theState Legislative Assembly atBhubaneswar. On 10 December,more than 700 members fromdifferent districts participated ina colourful procession in thestate capital Bhubaneswarcovering the main thoroughfarewhich drew attention of thecommon people. The rally wasculminated in a mass meetingin front of the main administrative

building of the state, the StateSecretariat. CITU’s vicepresident Janardan Patiaddressed the gathering. Adelegation of OSRU met theadditional secretary to the ChiefMinister and submitted

memorandum who assured toforward the same to the healthsecretary. It was also assuredthat a joint meeting between thehealth and secretary theleadership of OSRU would beorganized to resolve the issueamicably.

Earlier, demand day wasobserved on 18 Novemberthroughout the state by way oforganizing rallies, street cornermeetings and submittingmemoranda to the state’shealth minister through districtadministrations. Month longcampaign was conductedacross the state withpamphlets printed in Englishand Odia. Special general bodymeetings were held for thepreparation of successfulstrike. Press statements wereissued prior to the strike whichattracted wide coverage bothin print and electronic media.

Rally at Bargarh

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Comrade Abhijit KarComrade Abhijit

Kar, 40, a fieldworker working inSvizera Healthcareand a member of

Berhampur unit of OSRU diedin a tragic road accident on 25December, 2014 while returningfrom Phulbani. He left behindhis old parents, wife and aminor daughter studying instandard V.

FMRAI mourns theuntimely death of ComradeAbhijit Kar and sends heartfeltcondolence to the bereavedfamily.

Condolence

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AGB meeting of Orai unit ofUPMSRA was held on 29December, attended by 65members. UPMSRA’s jointsecretary Pratap Yadavaddresed. The meeting electedincoming committee.

AGB meeting of Orai

More than 200 participantsincluding the members ofTNMSRA’s Erode unit andpeople of the place in generalattended a convention onmedicine related issues on 22November. CITU’s district vicepresident P Marimuthuwelcomed the participants.FMRAI’s president RViswanathan spoke on “thedrug policies: good for thecorporate, bad for people”.Madhukkur Ramalingam, vicepresident, Tamilnaduprogressive writers’ associationalso addressed. TNMSRA’sErode unit secretary VNarayanasamy extended the

Convention on Drug Issues at Erodevote of thanks. TNMSRA’s vicepresident D Ravi presided.

Earlier, the members ofTNMSRA’s Erode unitconducted 3 days’ publicawareness campaign againstthe anti-people drug policies ofthe central government.

Trade Union Classat Surat

40 GSMRA activists from itsSurat unit including itsleadership attended a tradeunion class at Vanita VishramSchool on 13 November. Thesubjects dealt in the classinclude the history andbackground of FMRAI since itsinception; its councilmovement; the demands relatedto 8 hours work, minimumwages, implementation of SPEAct and its violation by differentemployers; present tactics onmovement in the era of neo-liberal policies etc. MSMRA’ssecretary Mukund Ranadeaddressed the participants.

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December and adopted aresolution which was submittedto the labour ministry,Government of West Bengal on16 December. 16 participantsdiscussed on the resolutionplaced by WBMSRU vicepresident Gautam Sengupta.The resolution contained theissues and raised specificdemands concerningrecruitment of sales promotionemployees through contractorsin violation of Contract Labour(Abolition & Regulation) Act bythe multinational FMCGcompanies, statutoryappointment letters, leavefacilities as per SPE Act;

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OTPI Conventionbonus, PF, ESI, maternityleave etc. The resolution furthermentioned the victimizations ofleading functionaries by themanagements of Ricoh,Godrej etc. and adverse impacton the security of jobs of salespromotion employees in thewake of online marketing.

Earlier, district level specialcampaign programme withleaflets and posters at marketplaces followed by conventionof OTPI fieldworkersirrespective of theirmembership were held duringfirst week of December acrossthe state.

CITU’s West Bengal statesecretary DebanjanChakraborty while inauguratingthe convention mentioned that

due to Central government’spolicy direction in this era ofglobalization, employers arerecruiting through indirectagencies, resor ting tocurtailment of wage, bringingattacks on the rights and legalbenefits and called upon thefield workers to get organizedunder the banner of WBMSRUand strengthen the movementfor their just demands.WBMSRU general secretarySumahan Chakraborty, FMRAIsecretary Sanjay Chatterjeeamong others who spoke onthis occasion.

The convention wasconducted by a presidiumconsisting of WBMSRU vicepresident Sumit Roy andSubrata Banerjee.

67 women field workers of WBMSRU fromDarjeeling, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, Howrah,Hoogly, South 24 Parganas and Kolkata attendedtheir 3rd state convention at Entally Academy,Kolkata on 23 November. AIDWA’s statesecretary Minati Ghosh inaugurated. Shenarrated in details how the corporate-multinationals, being emboldened by the policytrajectories of the successive governments atthe centre, are flouting of labour laws. Sheexpressed her concern over increasing drugprices and the sufferings of common people ofthe country. She also mentioned that, in WestBengal, there is no security for women underthe present Trinamool-led state government.

WBMSRU’s vice president and women sub-committee convener Arpita Mitra Roy placed a

Women Conventionnote which was discussed by 10 participants.The convention discussed on FMRAI’s 12-pointdemands for women field workers including sixmonths maternity leave; equal pay for equal work;right to 8 hours work; stop harassment of womenfield workers; stop corporate corruption; reducedrug prices etc. WBMSRU’s president Rabin Deb,while greeting the participants, expressed hissatisfaction over spontaneous and enthusiasticparticipation of women field workers in differentorganizational programmes and day to dayactivities. Others who greeted include CITU’sstate secretary Ratna Dutta and WBMSRU’ssecretary Arnab Nag.

A presidium consisting of Sharmistha Saha,Tandrima Nandy and Sharmistha Mukherjeeconducted the proceedings.

OSRUDistrict Conferences

Sambalpur

134 delegates of OSRU’s Sambalpur districtattended their 13th conference, held at Nari SevaSadan on 9 November. District president AmiyaPanda hoisted the flag. CITU’s district secretarySushanta Pattanayak inaugurated theconference.

Reports placed by Sanjay Kumar Panda,secretary and Partha Sarathi Sahu, treasurerwere unanimously adopted following discussionby 13 participants. Satyabrata Mohapatra,secretary, OSRU addressed the participants.Others who addressed include OSRU’s vicepresident Sanjay Kumar and its state committeemember Manoj Panda. A resolution in supportof state-wide field workers’ strike during 9-10December against the ban on work in medical

colleges and hospitals, called by OSRU, wasunanimously adopted.

A 15 member district committee was electedwith Sanjay Panda as president, SubirChakraborty as secretary and Partha SarathiSahoo as treasurer.

Balasore92 OSRU members of its Balasore unit

attended their 13th district conference on 30November which was inaugurated by CITU’sstate vice president Janardan Pati. OSRU’sgeneral secretary Subhankar Das addressed.Pradipta Kumar Panda, former MLA of thestate; Nikunja Basantaray, CITU leader andothers greeted the participants. A 15 memberdistrict committee was unanimously electedwith Rashmi Ranjan Das as president,Sangram Keshari Mallick as secretary andSitaram Nayak as treasurer. A presidiumconsisting of Bijay Krushna Das, Amar KumarAcharya and Rashmi Ranjan Das conductedthe proceedings.

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In the first settlement, the existing two grades were upwardlyrevised by adding Rs.300 and Rs. 760 which were further revisedin the second settlement by adding another Rs. 300 and Rs. 600 atthe entry points of two grades respectively. Annual rate of incrementwere also increased ranging from Rs. 30 to Rs. 40 in the firstsettlement and again by Rs. 30 to Rs. 40 in the second settlementin all steps. Further, in the first settlement, Rs. 967 was added inall six slabs of additional fixed dearness allowance (AFDA) and inthe second settlement, all other salary components like AdditionalSalary, New FDA, AFDA, New Fixed Special Allowance weremerged into a single component as Supplementary Salary.

All the six slabs of house rent allowance, in the first settlement,were increased minimum by Rs. 757 and Rs. 1319 being the maximum,based on service seniority. In the second settlement, the threeallowance components namely house rent, Kit and education weremerged as house rent allowance with upward improvement in all sixservice slabs. All the six slabs of LTA and medical were improvedupwardly minimum by Rs.5040 and Rs.6048 and by Rs.8796 andRs.10548 as maximum respectively per annum in the first settlement.While both these components remained unchanged in the secondsettlement, medical allowance would be paid on monthly basis inplace of existing annual payment. In case of daily allowances, in thefirst settlement, headquarter allowance was increased to Rs. 184, ex-headquarter to 200 and out station to Rs.209 which were furtherincreased to Rs. 225, Rs. 270 and Rs.285 respectively in the secondsettlement. Field workers working in metro cities would get additionallyRs 10 in headquarter working as metro city allowance in the firstsettlement which was increased to Rs.30 in the second settlement.Group medical hospitalization; Group personal accident insurance andGroup life insurance were substantially improved upwardly.

With the settlements of charter of demands, it was mutuallyagreed that the disputes relating to the charters of demands ceaseto exist and FMRAI would approach the concerned Tribunals forappropriate action.

Arrears arising out of the settlements shall be paid within sixtydays after adjustment of Rs. 4000 paid as interim relief per month.

On behalf of Wyeth Limited, Partha Ghosh, Sr. director-tradecore & WHC; Lakshmi Nandkarni, Sr. director-HR; Anup Godbole,business lead-WHC; Arun Narang, sales head-WHC; A. Kotwal,Sr. manager-HR; S.C.Thevar, RSM; S.Gaikwad, manager-HR; andAnil D’Souza, independent consultant and on behalf of ConsultativeCommittee, Aniruddha Choudhury, Sudip Roy, Devasish Roy, RK Nyati, K M Surendran and A S Gulagi signed the settlements.

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AstraZeneca��������������������

“Why prosecution should not be taken against you for non-compliance of the provisions of the Act (read SPE Act) andRules”, stated the assistant commissioner of labour, circle II,Visakhapatnam while issuing a show cause notice on 29September to the management of Mumbai basedpharmaceutical company M/s USV Limited. The managementwas asked to show cause since they failed to issue appointmentletters in Form – A under the provisions of the Sales PromotionEmployees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 to the company’sseven sales promotion employees based at Visakhapatnam.The notice also pointed out that “certain provisions of the Actand Rules were not carried out” by the management.

Following a representation made by the Visakhapatnam unitof APMSRU on 11 August, the joint commissioner of labour calledjoint meetings in his office. The management did not attend thesaid meeting despite receipt of the notice. The joint commissionerheard the issue and show caused the management.

Show Cause Notice against USV

Lupin

Negotiation on FMRAI’s char ter of demands dated 14December, 2012 for the Professional Sales Representatives ofAstraZeneca was concluded and a memorandum of understandingon wage settlement was signed between FMRAI’s negotiatingcommittee and the management on 14 December, 2013. Thesettlement would be signed on 22 January.

Negotiation on FMRAI’s charter of demands began betweenthe committee and the management during 7-8 October, 2013.Second round of discussion was held on 19 December which isstill in preliminary stage. On conclusion, this will be the eighthsuccessive wage settlement in Lupin.

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Printed by D P Dubey, published by D P Dubey on behalf of Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Associations of India and printed at SatyajugEmployees Co-operative Industrial Society Ltd. 13 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Kolkata-700 072 and published at 60-A, Charu Avenue Kolkata-700 033

EDITOR : D P DUBEY

Registration No. WBENG/2001/6430 Postal Registration No. KOL RMS/106/2013-2015

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342 delegates, including two women, fromthree divisions of Franco Indian namely FIP,Diabetix and Zinda attended their 2nd all Indiacouncil conference held at Comrade BankimSinha and Comrade S K Sinha Manch in ComradeR Umanath Nagar, Kozhikode, during 14-15December. The conference exhibited all roundunity amongst the field workers all over the countryand gave clarion call for organizational and bilaterallevel expansion of Zinda division field workers.

The conference was inaugurated by CITU’s

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India conveners; Debajyoti Roy, Seshnath BTiwari, Srihari Gore and A. Jayaganesh as zonalconveners of east, north, south and west; andShashi Prakash, U D Upadhaya, PinakiChakravarty and Kiran Kumar Chaudhury asrespective joint zonal conveners.

The meeting also constituted Consultative andNegotiating committees for both FIP and Diabetixdivisions. All India and joint all India convenersare common constituents for the committees inboth the divisions. Besides them, four zonalconveners will represent committees for FIPwhereas four joint zonal conveners namely AbhraChakraborty, Vikas Mishra, T. P. Nikhil and RajKumar Sharma will represent in the Diabetixcommittees. FMRAI’s joint general secretaryDipak Bhattacharjee will represent all thecommittees for both the divisions.

Kerala state general secretary and formercommerce minister of the state’s LDF governmentElamaram Kareem. He briefed about the presentonslaughts on the working class following the neo-liberal policy trajectories of the centralgovernment which are now being pursued morevigorously by the Narendra Modi government. Heurged upon the participants to carry forward thetasks of the united working class movementbeside their own organizational programmes.FMRAI’s president R Viswanathan spoke on theimportance of council movement and the futuretasks before the members in the background ofthe present scenario.

Report placed by all India convener DipakBhattacharjee was unanimously adopted afterdiscussion by 26 participants. Audited accountsreport and credential report were also adopted.

FMRAI’s general secretary Aloke Kumar Banerjeesummed up the conference explaining the tasksbefore Franco Indian field workers in advancingFMRAI’s council and its related movement acrossthe country.

A presidium consisting of V V Raja, RMuralidharan and T P Nikhil conducted theproceedings.

Prior to the conference, Franco Indian all Indiacouncil meeting was held which elected K BKadam and Shiv Awasthi as all India and joint all

Elamaram Kareem inaugurating the conference

As decided bythe joint platformof all centraltrade unions andnational federations/organizationsincludingFMRAI,thousands offield workersacross thecountry joinedthe other tradeunions on thenational protestday on 5December.

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UPMSRAmembersin a joint

rally infront of

stateAssembly

atLucknow

� � � � � � � � �CRU

Unit AGB MeetingsSilchar90 members of CRU’s Silchar unit attended their annual

general body meeting held at Madhya Sahar Sansktriti SamitiHall on 7 December. CRU’s state executive committee memberSubrata Roy inaugurated. Reports placed by district secretary

Utpal Paul and treasurer Ashok Bhowal were discussed by theparticipants and were adopted. CITU’s district vice presidentManabendra Paithya; its treasurer Rajat Purkayastha andEWTCC’s district secretary Bidyut Deb greeted the participants.CRU’s vice president Supriya Bhattacharjee concluded themeeting. The meeting was presided by CRU’s district presidentTridip Paul.

Agartala81 members of CRU’s Agartala district attended their annual

general body meeting held at Sakhicharan Vidhyaniketan on 14December. Following discussion by 15 participants, the work reportplaced by the district secretary was adopted. CRU’s president P

K Roy addressed the meeting. CRU’s former president A K Royalso greeted. The meeting was presided by district presidentChandan Bhowmik.

Blood Donation Camp at TezpurOn 2 December, CRU’s Tezpur unit organized the blood

donation camp for 8th successive years. District blood bank in-charge Dr. T B Chetry inaugurated in presence of Dr. JuriBhattacharjee, superintended of Kanaklata civil hospital and themembers of Tezpur unit. Those who donated blood include RubenChatterjee, a woman field worker and Rubee Santra, wife of oneof the members. Total 31 units of blood were donated.

WBMSRUOTPI State Convention

126 including 3 women field workers of different industriesother than pharmaceutical industry (OTPI) from 17 districts ofWBMSRU met in a state level convention at Kolkata on 14

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