May Day Greetings to one and all!

It is now over a century since International Workers’ Day is being observed on 1st May and being called as May Day or Labour Day. It is a national holiday, a compulsory holiday in India. It is a day to celebrate for Workers’ and Workers’ Unions which have achieved good working conditions and wages. For many other Organizations, it is a day of protests and marches to highlight their grievances. And for thousands of unorganized units, it is just a normal cumbersome day, a compulsory working day, another day of exploitation by their bosses. Such units which operate on 1st May can be penalized but these managements manage their helpless workmen through threats if necessary, and escape punishment by illegal means, best known to them. Such exploitation of labour can be seen every day, year round, in most small scale units, long working hours with meagre wages and very poor compensation for extra hours of compulsory work and hardly any holidays. Hope someday these unfortunate workmen will see better days. This wish also goes for thousands of heavily exploited so-called Casual Workmen in various Public Sector Undertakings of the country who work more than the permanent workmen at a fraction of their salaries with no other benefit except for a daily wage and with a never-ending hope of becoming permanent workmen someday.