The Hindu Business Line : Wisdom in difficult times

The Government’s approach to the two strikes of the last week was laced with maturity. As the summer of discontent creeps over the horizon that wisdom will be increasingly called for.

With the All-India Motor Transport Congress calling off the eight-day-old truckers’ strike on Monday, a very testing time for a Government tackling economic slowdown and a major corporate fraud appears to have come to an end. The nation will heave a sigh of relief because the truckers’ stir overlapped with oil sector officers striking work. Food and fuel shortages developed alarmingly fast and it should not be surprising if the four days of fuel shortages do not add up to a hike in prices of essential commodities. With both strikes ending, that spike, if any, should remain temporary given the trend for falling prices—unless disaffection erupts into similar shortage-causing protests.

That possibility cannot be ruled out because the economy will be passing through parlous times over the next six months at least. Even if prices — the historical cause of past strikes — fall, so too is the prospect of employment as one industry after another confronts falling demand. The truckers’ disaffection was in the main the result of the cascading effects of such weakening demand on their revenues and costs. When business is dull or falling, diesel prices, service tax notices and tax deductions at source from freight payments seem exorbitant; the demand for a single national permit system to replace the existing system that truckers allege allows state-level corruption, acquires urgency. But strikers need to balance their grievances against the interests of the country. To its credit, the Government took a tough position laced with understanding. While no quarter was given to the striking oil officers, the truckers, already weakened by internal dissent, have been promised a sympathetic hearing; a committee with union representation will look into the grievances. That committee will report in eight weeks and well it might. But the Ministry should act on those recommendations that improve interstate travel time by reducing transaction costs at check posts and ensuring a seamless flow of freight across states.

Unlike the oil officers’ strike that disrupted oil supplies across the country, the truckers’ agitation was less severe in its impact partly because it was not widespread. That the Government was more generous with the truckers’ demand than the oil officers suggests a mature approach to labour agitations and an ability to recognise genuine demands. As the summer of discontent creeps over the horizon that wisdom will be increasingly called for.

Related Stories:
Transporters call off strike; govt to consider demands
‘Govt open to talks with truckers’
PSU oil officers call off strike

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