Proletarian Poverty and Common Wealth Games

This week construction workers on London's 2012 Olympic site will protest conditions and blacklisting by construction firms on the site (details below). Meanwhile union activists attempting to monitor conditions at the site of Delhi's Commonwealth Games are finding themselves faced with repression and secrecy

Proletarian Poverty and Common Wealth Games - After a deadly work accident on the huge Common Wealth Games construction site in Delhi workers struck and destroyed company property. The accident was just the last straw - the general working-conditions are bad enough and the credit and profit squeezed construction companies (see short summary) have to pass the squeeze on to the workers. People's Union for Democratic Rights has just published a report on the conditions on the site:

http://www.pudr.org/index.php?option=com_docman&ta...

In 1982, the Asian Games were held in India in Delhi. At that time, PUDR had conducted a survey of Asiad’s construction sites and found gross violations of several labour laws. On the basis of these findings, a letter was written to Justice P.N. Bhagwati, the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who accepted the locus standi of PUDR in the matter, heard the case as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and gave a historic judgment in favour of the Asiad workers. Now, more than two decades later, the country is going to hold an even bigger international sports event—the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Given our experience of the Asiad Games, PUDR decided to investigate the working conditions at the construction sites for the Games as soon as the construction began there. We tried to investigate working conditions at the Commonwealth Games Village site near Akshardham temple for almost a year. In contrast to the Asiad times, the access to the construction site itself turned out to be a big hurdle.There was a great deal of secrecy and we were denied access to the work sites despite repeated attempts. Our efforts to seek permission from the administration to visit the site were also futile. Often, ‘terrorism’ was cited as the reason for denying permission. The construction companies and the state seemed to be working hand in glove to prevent any monitoring of the conditions at the work sites. On 14 December 2008, a worker died in an accident at the same site. What followed was unprecedented: workers at the site struck work and demanded that his body be released and shown to, them. They also demanded better working, living and sanitation conditions. This incidence also paved the way for PUDR to conduct a fact finding and speak to some workers at the site. Although it must be mentioned that this could not continue for too long because of physical threats as well as intimidation by goons of the construction company.

---London 2012 Olympic Site construction workers demo, 6 May

Unite London & South East Construction Branch, Olympic Site Demonstration, Main Gate, Wed 6 May, 6.30am

(Nearest station DLR at Pudding Mill Lane)

Demands:

Direct EmploymentNAEICI, JIB, WRA in full with correct rates of pay and terms of conditionsNo Bogus self-employmentFight against blacklistsTrade union control over hiring of labour

Protest endorsed by the London Activist meeting of Unite.

Contact 0794 2252280

This report attempts to show how the administration is colluding with builders by giving them a free hand vis-à-vis the labour laws, and how this has led to the denial of fundamental rights to the poorest citizens of India.