Criticisms have been levelled by sister unions and individual members of sister unions about the decision taken by the FUTA executive committee to suspend the trade union action and the manner in which the decision has been taken and is carried out. In my view, such criticisms highlight that the sister unions and individual members are constantly on their guard in safe guarding the interests of FUTA, its sister unions and individual members, which is a healthy sign for the future of FUTA.
However, I suggest that it is time we take the discussion back to the FUTA executive committee and work together to resolve all the issues within the executive committee and emerge in one voice and assure thousands of members of sister unions and the country that we will not allow FUTA to be divided.
Kumudu Kusum Kumara
Arts Faculty Teachers’ Association, University of Colombo
4 comments:
FUTA TU action inadvertently became a leader in the battle for democratizing the political space and that was what was subverted last week by the FUTA executive committee with ingenious engineering by one or two individuals. The dissenting voices didn't take it to the public but the 'false wounded' did. I don't think FUTA executive committee should become another 'political hierarchy' resembling the government. I express my right to dissent as an individual and the right of sister unions to dissent as a collective. By those actions we can help (even minutely) to show the larger society how democracy should operate.
Exercising democratic dissent is good if we do "lessons learned" exercise. It should not be an act of "washing our linen public" cos we are still in the midst of our struggle. Still we have opportunity to Regroup --Rethink- Reformulate and Strike-back. So we need a central command - FUTA -
It is not hierarchy building...its a necessity cos we have an uphill task to achieve our demands. We set 2013 as our target year to achive the full implementation of the salary scheme. What about the 6% GDP/University Autonomy/New University Act?
We were in a jubilant mood when climbing up the hill. Now we are climbing down the hill with negotiation and preparing interim solutions...when the slope is steep...always there is a danger of losing the game if we couldn't press the breaks on time. I think that's what happened.
Exercising democratic dissent is good if we do "lessons learned" exercise. It should not be an act of "washing our linen public" cos we are still in the midst of our struggle. Still we have opportunity to Regroup --Rethink- Reformulate and Strike-back. So we need a central command - FUTA -
It is not hierarchy building...its a necessity cos we have an uphill task to achieve our demands.
We have set 2013 as our target year to achieve the full implementation of the salary scheme. What about the 6% GDP/University Autonomy/New University Act?
We were in a jubilant mood when climbing up the hill. Now we are climbing down the hill with negotiation and preparing interim solutions...when the slope is steep...always there is a danger of losing the game if we couldn't press the breaks on time. I think that's what happened.
I am totally dissapointed about the way in which the trade union action was brought to a sudden and abrupt end by the FUTA leadership.The assertion that we would not stop the trade union action until a written agreement is signed drawing a road map on the salary issue was totally given up. This amounts to betrayal on the part of FUTA. They have killed the enthusiasm, energy and hopes of the entire academic community. The entire country including other trade unions were closely watching as to how we steer our struggle and win the demands. What about the other demands such as 6% increase in the GDP for education? Has the FUTA given up that demand. Ultimately FUTA has proved that we are a spineless and selfish organization. I was ashamed to collect water bottles given to us by University students in Colombo, Anuradhapura and Jaffna because in the past we did not look after our students and were not sensitive to their just demands. I thought that hereafter we will be sensitive to the needs of the masses. But unfortunately FUTA has proved again that we are a selfish community and that just for a meager increase in the salary, we are prepared to give up our struggle on broader issues. I have lost all hopes with this betrayal by the FUTA.
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