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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, fmrainews@indiatimes.com

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From Gujarat, golden-jubilee-flag-march reached Udaipur ofRajasthan on 2 September.RMSRU vice presidentJ.S.Naruka, flagged off the localmarch by hoisting FMRAI’s flag.FMRAI’s secretary R.P.Singh,entire state working committeemembers of RMSRU, 13 unitsecretaries, FMRAI generalcouncil members, as well asleadership of various fraternaltrade unions and massorganisations amidst sloganshouting by more than 150members of Udaipur unit.

Later, the flag carried by officebearers from one unit to anotherand hoisted by unit secretaries inUdaipur, Pali, Jodhpur, Nagaur,Bikaner, Sri Ganganagar, Sikar,Jhunjunu, Jaipur, Ajmer, Bhilwara,Kota, Swaimadhepur, Bharatpur

FMRAI’s Golden JubileeFlag March in Rajasthan

and finally, on 17 September theflag was hoisted in Alwar andmassive meeting with blooddonation camp was organised.Later, RMSRU leadership carriedthe flag to Gurgaon on 18September and handed over tothe FMRAI’s Haryana unit.

During the programme,tremendous enthusiasm amongstmembers was witnessed. Morethan 1500 RMSRU membersparticipated and in different unitsmore than 700 units of blood weredonated by them all overRajasthan. In all the places, mediacoverage was unprecedented.

Just after the flag hoisting, astate level convention was heldon 2 September at Udaipur onmedicine related issues whichwas attended by more than 200participants including RMSRUleaders, members and leadersfrom CITU, bank, insurance, DYFI,chemists and doctorsassociations. RMSRU generalsecretary Sanjeev Khandelwalpresented the resolution whichwas adopted unanimously aftercontribution from variousspeakers. Electronic and pressmedia widely covered the event.

Following FMRAI’s golden-jubilee-flag-march, RMSRU’s flagwill move in all 15 sub units and10 satellite units of RMSRU. Thisflag will be carried to FMRAI’sgolden jubilee conference atKolkata during 4 - 7 February,2013.

Maharashtra government to issue8 hours work notification

In a meeting on government’s intentional notification on fixationtime of 8-hours-work with the leadership of Maharashtra state unitof FMRAI, MSMRA, on 7 August in presence of the labour ministerof Maharashtra Hasan Musharif, the Government of Maharashtradecided to issue 8 hours notification for the sales promotionemployees working in Maharashtra on Andhra Pradesh pattern.Besides the Hon’ble labour minister Hasan Mushrif, secretary oflabour Nitin Gadre, joint secretary Yashavant Kerure, commissionerof labour M B Gaikawad, assistant labour commissioners S SKadam and P Y Katta were present. On behalf of MSMRA, itspresident S R Nalawade, secretaries Rajesh Kulkarni and AbhayDev, FMRAI’s joint general secretary K B Kadam and its workingcommittee member Vivek Sawant attended the meeting.

The notice issued by Andhra Pradesh under G.O.Ms.No 100dated.16.11.2010 reads as -

NOTIFICATIONIn exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section

(1) of Section 13 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (Act No.11 of1948) read with sub-section (3) of Section 6 of the Sales PromotionEmployees (Conditions of Services) Act, 1976 (Act No.11 of 1976)the Government of Andhra Pradesh hereby fix the number of hoursof work of Sales Promotion Employees (Medical & SalesRepresentatives) as eight (8) hours, in a day (including lunchbreak) as mentioned below.

8.00 A.M. to 4 P.M. - In all the District Head Quarters;9.00 A.M. to 5 P.M - In all the Metropolitan Cities.

D.SREENIVASULUSECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT

Notified by FMRAI and led by united platform of FMRAI’s councils – OSG; against fragmentation,de-unionization and capsulation of the sales promotion employees by the employers in the drugindustry, led by multinationals; and demanding ‘Law for all – Union for all’; field work in six culpritcompanies - Abbott group, AstraZeneca, Biological E, Cosme Farma, Fulford-Organon-MSD andWyeth-Pfizer was paralyzed on 12 September as field workers in these companies, irrespective ofdivisions and designations, abstained from work in pursuance of common demands of OSG.

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In more than hundred placesin the country, OSG along withstriking workers staged dharnas,demonstrations in front of labourauthorities and submittedcomplaint petitions against theculprit companies for theirflagrant violations of provisionsof Sales Promotion Employees(Conditions of Service) Act, 1976demanding prosecution. Similardharna and demonstrations tookplace in front of companies’establishments. In the face ofdemonstrations, AbbottHealthcare management had to

call off meetings at Chandigarh,Guwahati and in Bengaluru.Pfizer management shifted theusual date of shadow closing on12th of each month to 13September in view of the strike.

For reversal of restructuring,FMRAI’s Bhopal general councilmeeting decided waves of OSGmovement and continuousexpansion of council / councils’platform through it. 12 Septemberstrike was yet another wave ofOSG movement. Waves ofmovement include strikes by thefield workers in AstraZeneca on

25 January, in Cosme Farma on23 March; joint strike inAstraZeneca, Biological E,Abbott group and Wyeth-Pfizeron 19 April, in Abbott India on 26June and in Cosme Farma on 3August.

Earlier, all India councilcommittee meetings of six OSG-targeted companies was held atKolkata on 16 June. All Indiacouncil sub-committee meeting,held on 21 July at Vijayawada,reviewed the developments anddecided to lead the movementfrom front. Accordingly, hundredsof state and district level meetingswere held to campaign on strikedemands. All India councilsubcommittee membersattended such meetings in state.At state capitals, councilsubcommittees stageddemonstrations in front ofcompanies’ establishmentsduring 3-8 September. In districts

800 field workers from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh and Kerala participated in southzone rally in Bengaluru on 15 September, as perFMRAI’s annual task document, road map, 2012raising demands before Central and stategovernments.

FMRAI’s secretary T. Kameshwara Rao flaggedoff the procession which started from Anand RaoCircle, a prominent location in central business areaof Bengaluru and passed through busy roads withplacards, banners, festoons, distributing handbillsamong public and finally culminated at FreedomPark where a convention was held. Joint labourcommissioner of the Karnataka J T Jinkalappaaddressed the convention and collected thememorandum from KSM&SRA president L. M.Peshwa. FMRAI’s vice president G. Madhu presidedover the convention.

J T Jinkalappa in his deliberation stated thatthey are aware of the law violation by the pharma

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companies and instead of complying law, they areappointing in various designation to deny the fieldworkers the benefits of law. He assured that furtheractions would be undertaken against the violatingcompanies including prosecution. He has alsoassured to notify the working hours and formationof grievance committee for sales promotionemployees in the state at the earliest.

Others who addressed in the convention includeCITU’s Karnataka state general secretary PrasannaKumar, T. Kameshwara Rao, FMRAI’s secretaryRamesh Sundar, APMSRU’s general secretary A.G. Rajamohan, KMSRA’s general secretary PaulVerghese and A Jaya Ganesh, general secretary ofKSM&SRA.

Earlier, as per road map, 2012, field workersparticipated in rallies at district level followed byrallies at state capitals. Following south zone rally,east zone rally is scheduled on 8 October and inother two zones will be held shortly which willculminate in country-wide general strike of the fieldworkers on 4 December.

���������FMRAI News requests its readers,

subscribers, well-wishers and FMRAI membersto send to Operational Office of FMRAI, Kolkata,in case any old photographs, video film or anyother document related with field workers’movement are in possession with them whichmay be utilized on the occasion of GoldenJubilee year Conference of FMRAI to be held atKolkata during 4-7 February, 2013.

See page-3

Demonstration at Patna

Flag hoisting at Udaipur

Rally at Bengaluru

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� OCTOBER 2012 �

Eleven central trade unions – CITU, BMS, HMS, AITUC, AICCTU, INTUC,AIUTUC, TUCC, UTUC, LPF, SEWA – and industrial federations of workersand employees, including FMRAI, met in a national convention at TalkatoraStadium in New Delhi on 4 September and decided nationwide campaignduring September – November and action programmes in December andFebruary, including 2 days historic strike, first time in Independent India,demanding reversal of neoliberal anti-workers anti-people policies of theGovernment.

The declaration of the convention condemned governments for inaction toaddress the burning problems of the working people and demanded check onprice rise, steps against violation of labour laws by employers and their effectiveenforcement, against handing over permanent and perennial work to thecontractors/franchisees, for universal coverage of minimum wages irrespectiveof schedule and Rs.10,000 as statutory minimum wages linking with price indexetc.

In pursuance of the demands; state, district, sector-wise and industrialcentres conventions are scheduled in September, October and November;satyagraha/jail bharo/courting arrest will take place on 18/19 December; Marchto Parliament on 20 December culminating in two days countrywide generalstrike on 20 and 21 February, 2013.

Under FMRAI’s banner, since 1996, field workers have also been relentlesslyfighting, including several strike struggles, for reversal of 3-burning-problems,as the effect of neo-liberal economic policies on them; for stronger amendmentagainst violations and effective enforcement of SPE Act including appointmentletters in Form-A; legal notification on 8-hours work; minimum wages; photoidentity cards, grievance committees and recognition of the right of collectivebargaining through periodical service settlement.

They have also been fighting against people’s exploitation by drug cartelsand government’s policy failure demanding check against spiraling price riseof medicines by bringing DPCO coverage on all medicines; reduction of exciseduty; strong steps against unfair marketing and trading by central and statedrug control authorities; no FDI in pharma sector etc.

FMRAI has been fighting for enforcement of SPE Act for all, by whatevername the field workers are called, including appointment letter in Form A and‘imprisonment’ as punishment for violation. Despite commitment in the tripartitemeeting, Central government is yet to constitute tripartite industrial committeefor the field workers. FMRAI’s demands for statutory working rules and sixmonths maternity leave for women field workers are still pending. Central andstate governments inaction encouraged the drug cartels further to continuetheir oppression and exploitation of the field workers.

Steep price rise of food articles and of all other essential commodities,including fuel and electricity, and in absence dearness allowance in most of thecompanies to check the erosion of real wages; the living standard of the fieldworkers has lowered substantially.

Precisely, FMRAI’s policy-related movement is for stronger law; OSGmovement is to fight unitedly by councils against neo-liberal-policy induced 3-burning-problems and to unite all field workers, irrespective of their designationsas ‘sales officers’; council movement for ‘union for all’ and ‘bargained serviceconditions for all’; state-related movement is for law enforcement and minimumwages. Due to movement by state units of FMRAI, despite 15 state governmentshave enacted minimum wages for sales promotion employees, yet employerseither have put legal embargo or denying the benefits to the workers andgovernments remained silent onlookers.

Despite ‘sales promotion’ activity being permanent and perennial in character,drug companies are handing over sales promotion work to contractors calledas franchisees. FMRAI’s councils and state units are fighting for regularizationof jobs of field workers under contractors / franchises.

All the demands raised in the national convention at Delhi have relevanceto the working and service conditions of the field workers. Field workers havebeen fighting for several such demands and had observed strikes in the past.Based on FMRAI’s annual task document, road map, 2012, state units of FMRAIhave already resorted to district level dharna/demonstrations before governmentauthorities followed by state level agitations. This will follow by zonal levelmobilization which will finally culminate in countrywide field workers’ generalstrike in December.

Under imperialist pressure, the current reform measures adopted byCentral government of increasing diesel price, on cooking gas, 100% FDI inmulti brand retail and the hidden agenda to unveil in future will have severeadverse impact on the working people of the country which will haveramification on field workers too. That is why field workers’ movement ispart of the united working class movement of the country. Field workersunder FMRAI will have humble contribution in reversing the neo-liberalpolicies of the government alongwith other sections of workers in thecountry.

SECTORALYET

INTEGRATED STRUGGLE

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Comrade S.ChinnaduraiComrade S.

Chinnadurai, 34, afield worker ofPharmed and amember of Tirunelveliunit of TNMSRApassed away on 16 Septemberdue to heart attack. He left behindhis aged father, wife and a 5 yearold son.

FMRAI condoles the untimelydeath of Comrade S.Chinnadurai and sends heartfeltcondolence to his bereavedfamily members.

The Intellectual PropertyAppellate Board on 14September dismissed a petitionfiled by multinational drug cartelBayer Corporation, seeking astay on an order of the Controllerof Patents that grantedpermission to Natco PharmaLimited to sell a drug used to treatliver and kidney cancer at muchcheaper price. While giving theverdict the Board said, “If [a] stay

Bayer plea on Nexavar rejectedis granted, it will jeopardize theinterests of the public who arein need of the drug”.

As agaist Bayer’s Nexavarwhich costs Rs. 2.8 lakh of 120tablets for a month, Controller ofPatents, Mumbai, gavepermission to Natco, aHyderabad-based generic drugmaker, to sell its generic versionfor Rs. 8,800 through compulsorylicensing despite Bayer argued

before the Appellate Board thatits drug was made available atRs. 30,000 to patients onrecommendation of theoncologist.

It may be noted that Indianpatent law allows grant of acompulsory license to anapplicant if the patented drug isnot available to the public at areasonable price. (inputs from TheHindu)

On 11 September, Governmentof India approved 21 foreign directinvestment (FDI) proposalsincluding 8 proposals relating topharmaceutical sector, based onthe recommendations of ForeignInvestment Promotion Board (FIPB).

Government approved8 pharma FDI proposals

The 8 cases include PfizerLimited, Ordain Health Care,Sutures India, Arch Pharmalabs,B Braun, StellencePharmascience, VyomeBoisciences and ZimLaboratories with conditions

including; that, quantitative levelof production of drugs in theNational List of EssentialMedicines and R & D expensesat highest level annually in anyof the past three years would bemaintained for the next 5 years.

40 FMRAI members, mainlyform north zone, led by its jointgeneral secretary A. K. Banerjeeand secretary R. P. Singhparticipated in the joint tradeunion convention at TalkatoraStadium, New Delhi on 4September. All the 11 centraltrade unions - BMS, HMS,AITUC, CITU, AICCTU, INTUC,AIUTUC, TUCC, UTUC, LPF,SEWA and large number ofindustrial federations of workersand employees attended. The

4 September Joint TradeUnion Convention

convention adopted a jointdeclaration calling upon theworkers of the country toparticipate in satyagraha/jailbharo/court arrest on 18-19December in all the statesthroughout the country; Marchto Parliament on 20 Decemberand resort to two dayscountrywide general strike on 20and 21 February of next year inpursuance of five specificdemands decided in theconvention.

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Following intervention ofAPMSRU’s Anantapur unit, themanagement of MaharajaSoaps, a Karnataka basedFMCG company, paid Rs. 1.5lakhs as compensation to thefamily members of Srinivas, afield worker who died in a roadaccident.

On 27 July, Srinivas and hiscolleague Viswanath were goingfor ex-station work in company’svan when they met with accidentand both of them died on the spotalong with the driver of thevehicle. Initially, managementdenied compensation to thebereaved families on the pleathat the field workers were not inthe pay roll of the company. Whilepaying compensation to the

Anantapur unit acts on OTPI issue

family of Srinivas, managementassured to consider the other twocases. Meanwhile, Anantapurunit of APMSRU handed over a

Following the directives ofBhopal GCM and as per 2012road map programme of FMRAI,150 members of TNMSRA,symbolically representing itsdifferent district units stageddharna and demonstration atValluvar Kottam, the place

State level dharna at Chennaiearmarked by the stategovernment in the state capital ofChennai on 3 September, inpursuance of various demands ofthe field workers. During dharna,a public meeting was organizedwhich was addressed by BheemaRao, M.L.A., CPI(M); CITU leader

Thiruniraiselvan; FMRAI’spresident R Viswanathan; itssecretary R Ramesh Sundar;TNMSRA’s general secretary CPrabhakar Devadoss and others.The meeting was presided by GGopinath, vice president ofTNMSRA.

cheque of Rs. 50,000 to thefamily members of Viswanathwho was member of APMSRUand its benevolent fund.

APMSRU general secretary A G Rajamohanhanding over the cheque

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A meeting between themanagement of ElderPharmaceuticals Limited andWelfare Committee (grievancecommittee) was held on 28 Augustat Mumbai. President MadhavJoshi; general manager-HR VijayDalvi; HR managers- R.Chandrasekhar and Manoj Shettyon behalf of the management andSumahan Chakraborty, PVSAPrasad, Naveen Gupta, KRamesh and Amit Chatterjee onbehalf of Welfare Committeesigned the minute.

Management agreed to issueappointment letters in Form-‘A’ ofSPE Act to all existing and futuresales promotion employees.Management informed that fieldworkers can accumulate earnedleave upto 180 days and wouldget encashment upto 120 daysat the time of retirement, inaccordance with the provisionsof SPE Act. It was mutually agreedthat with effect from 1 September,2012, headquarter allowance forthe field workers working in metrocities would be Rs. 175 and innon-metro cities would be Rs.165 from existing Rs. 165 andRs.155 respectively. Per kilometertravel fare was also increased toRs. 2.70 from existing Rs. 2.60per kilometer travel from 1

Welfare Committeemeeting in Elder

September, 2012. It was furtherdecided that field workers joiningin CP, Gyne, A1 and A2 divisionsfrom other divisions would beextended the existing settlementbenefits. Further, with effect from1 October, 2012 field workersworking in Elvista division wouldbe brought under the coverageof the present settlement andUnion will place charter ofdemands and WelfareCommittee would discuss theirgrievances in future, it was alsomutually agreed upon.

Management assured to lookinto the problems like delaypayment of salary and incentivedisbursement, transfer ofprovident fund account of specificfield workers and in getting ESIbenefits. The issues on leavequestion and other relatedmatters on electronic reportingsystem were discussed andresolved. It was mutually agreedupon that 1 May will be holidayfor the west zone field workerslike other field workers of thecountry from next financial year.Welfare Committee would reverton the specific areas raised bythe management in respect ofadherence to the understandingon call average, reportingthrough E-Force etc.

182 AstraZeneca fieldworkers, differently designatedas PSR, TBM, SDM and KAM,participated in conventions heldin four zones at Kolkata, Delhi,Mumbai and Chennai during 5August to 2 September. Theseconventions were called toconsolidate councilorganizational position and forexpansion of its base. Threeseparate resolutions supporting23 August countrywide strike byfield workers, 12 September OSGstrike in six culprit companiesincluding AstraZeneca and callfor expansion of council wereadopted in these conventions.

Zonal Conventionsof AstraZeneca

Leaders of FMRAI including itsjoint general secretary A. K.Banerjee, secretary T K. Rao,treasurer Alok Ganguli, workingcommittee member MaheshJhakar and AstraZeneca councilleaders Bhaskar Majumdar,Madan Das, Atul Sinha, C. S.Sarangi, Parminder Singh,Sanjay Kumar Pandey, M. NDattani, Prashant V. Wani,Prabhakar Devadoss and E. P.Shibu addressed theseconventions.

Zonal convention in east washeld on 5 August, north on 12August, west on 19 August andthat of south on 2 September.

copies of the strike notice weresubmitted to the field managers.

Strike was complete and totalin all six companies in Odhisa.The strike notice was served tothe executives by the state centreand district councilsubcommittees. Complaints werelodged to the district labourofficers against violation of SPEAct in 14 districts. On the day ofstrike, demonstrations were heldin front of the district labour officesat Angul, Balasore, Berhampur,Bolangir, Baripada,Bhubaneswar, Bhadrak, Cuttack,Sambalpur, Jeypore. Councilcommittee meetings ofAstraZeneca, Cosme Farma,Abbott and Biological E wereheld before the strike andalongwith council sub committeemembers, campaigned amongstthe unorganized section fieldworkers. Paralyzation of field workwas observed in West Bengal.Deputation met the labourauthorities in all 19 districts.Around 200 OSG membersstaged demonstration beforestate labour commissioner officeat Kolkata which was addressedby FMRAI’s joint generalsecretary A. K. Banerjee,WBMSRU general secretarySumahan Chakraborty andcouncil leaders. Deputation alsomet state labour commissioner.Overall, the strike successfullyparalyzed the field activity inthese six companies in NorthEast region. Out of 16 districtscomplaint petitions were lodgedin 12 districts- Lakhimpur,Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat,Bongaigoan, Nagaon, Tezpur,Agartala, Guwahati, Jorhat,Shillong and Silchar.Demonstrations were staged infront of office of the labourauthorities in Guwahati andJorhat on the strike day. 12September OSG strike was agrand success in Bihar andJharkhand as 1184 field workersin these six companies abstainedfrom field. On 12 September,striking field workers of Abbott,AstraZeneca, B.E., Cosme Farma,Pfizer-Wyeth staged dharnaalongwith council sub committeemembers before the DLC officesat their respective headquarters.Memoranda were submitted at 26units by the council subcommittee members. At Patna,striking field workers of 6 targetedcompanies stageddemonstrations before the DLCoffice. A gate meeting wasaddressed by Manjul Das,convenor, co-ordinationcommittee and former generalsecretary of NGEF, BSSRU’sgeneral secretary D.Bhattacharjee, its joint generalsecretary Anupam Kumar andcouncil leaders of 6 targetedcompanies. BSSRU presidentSanjay Chatterjee presided overthe meeting.

Earlier, on 2 and 9 September,council sub-committee meetingswere held at 23 units i.e.Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Bokaro,Daltonganj, Dehri-on-Sone,

Deoghar, Dhanbad, Gaya,Giridih, Hazaribagh,Jamshedpur, Katihar,Laheriasarai, Motihari, Munger,Muzaffarpur, Patna, Purnea,Ranchi, Saharsha, Samastipur,Sasaram and Sitamarhi, whichwere attended by all India councilsub committee members, zonalconvenors and state council corecommittee members.

Field workers abstained fromfield in Uttar Pradesh andUttarkhand. Dharna,demonostrations were held andmemoranda were submitted toDLC/DM and C&Fs ofAstraZeneca, Abbott, CosmeFarma and Biological E. atLucknow, Varanasi, Azamgarh,Jhansi, Kanpur, Balia,

Balaghat and in Bhopal andcomplaint petitions were filed.

In Maharshtra, on the strikeday dharna, demonstration,memorandum submission wasdone at Ahemadnagar, Solapur,Pune, Nagpur, Jalgaon, Dhuleand Nanded. Complaint petitionsagainst six targeted companieswere filed with district labourauthorities at Nagpur, Akola,Nanded, Satara, Sangli, Solapur,Jalna and Jalgaon.

568 field workers, medicalrepresentatives and salesofficers alike were off from thefield in Tamilnadu andPuducherry on 12 September.On the strike day council subcommittees conducteddemonstrations in front of labourauthorities at Villupuram, Erode,Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and infront of the district collectorate atMadurai. Gate Meetings wereheld in front of distributors atCuddalore and Salem. InChennai, gate meetings wereheld in front of the C&Fs ofBiological E, AstraZeneca andAbbott. Prior to the strike, fieldworkers meetings were held atVellore, Puducherry, Thanjavur,Trichy, Erode, Salem andCoimbatore. Field workers,irrespective of divisions anddesignations of Abbott,Biological E, Cosme Farma andPfizer-Wyeth abstained from fieldwork in Karnataka. Before thestrike, council sub committeesundertook campaign amongstthe field workers on strikedemands across the state. InAndhra Pradesh, salespromotion activities ceased on 12September. Striking workersalongwith council sub committeemembers filed complaint petitionon law violation by these culpritcompanies and demandingprosecution, staged dharnasbefore district labourdepartments in 22 out of total 28districts. Before that, 12 districtcouncil sub committeesorganized unit level conventionsof these field workers. Strikenotices were served to themanagers in 9 districts. The OSGstrike on 12 September inKerala was total. Memorandawere given to the labour authorityin all the districts on the strikeday. On that day, rally wasconducted in front of 6 districtlabour authorities and convertedin special meetings. Total 934comrades participated in theserallies. Earlier, strike notice wasgiven to the management duringjoint work in all the 6 companiesin all the districts. On 7September, dharna/demonstration was held atErnakulam in front of CosmeFarma, Biological E.,AstraZeneca, Pfizer and MSDand at Trichur before AbbottGroup. FMRAI secretaryP.N.Subramanian, KMSRAgeneral secretary PaulVarghese, its joint generalsecretary Mohan C Nair, vicepresident U.Satheesh Kumarinaugurated and addressed thedharnas.

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Elder to issueappointment

letters in Form-AManagement of Elder

Pharmaceuticals assured theWelfare Committee(grievance committee) in themeeting on 28 August atMumbai that legally amendedappointment letters in Form-Awould be issued to all existingsales promotion employees,irrespective of designations,and in future all appointmentletters to all new recruits wouldbe in Form-A only under Rule22(1) of the Sales PromotionEmployees (Conditions ofService) Rules, 1976.

Ghaziabad, Bareily, Agra andAllahabad. 152 field workers insix companies abstained fromfield work and OSG strike inRajasthan was successful in allits 15 units and 4 satellite units ofRMSRU. Field work gotcompletely paralyzed in all 6companies. Councilsubcommittee members stageddemonstrations before the culpritcompanies’ depot/CFA in Jaipur.In Himachal Pradesh, field workcame to a standstill on the day.Memorandum submitted tolabour commissioner at Shimlaand labour officers at Mandi andDharmshala. Cessation of fieldwork was observed inChandigarh, Bathinda,Jalandhar, Moga, Ferozpur,Ludhiana, Amritsar, Pathankot,Sangrur and in Patiala of Punjaband Chandigarh. Before thestrike, meetings were held inChandigarh, Bathinda, pathankotand Moga. Memorandum wassubmitted at Astrazeneca atChandigarh.

Sales promotion activities inthese companies wereadversely affected in MadhyaPradesh and Chhattisgarh. Onthe str ike day, dharna anddemonstrations were held jointlyby the council sub committeemembers and striking fieldworkers before district labouroffices at Raipur, Raigarh,Chhindwara, Bilaspur,Ambikapur, Rewa, Satna, Ujjain,Ratlam, Jabalpur, Gwalior,Indore, Durg, Betul, Sagar,

North Zone Convention at Delhi

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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/106/2010-2012�������� !"

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14th STATE CONFERENCE OF WBMSRU441 including 5 women delegates

and 71 observers participated in the 14th

State Conference of WBMSRU, held atComrade Partha Sarathi RoyChoudhuryMancha ( Sanskriti Lok Mancha) ofComrade Pradip Tah Nagar, Burdwan,during 7-9 September, resolved toexpand the organizational base byacheiving 14,200 record membership.14th conference was held in thebackdrop of registering membershipfrom 7444 to 11952, increasing numberof local units to 110 from 100 andadvancement in other movementalareas since 13th conference.

The conference began by hoistingUnion’s flag by its president Rabin Debfollowed by paying floral tribute to themartyrs’ column by the leaders ofWBMSRU, FMRAI, ReceptionCommittee, CITU, BEFI, SFI, AIDWA,Sales Executive Association, 12 JulyCommittee and Kishan Sabha.

Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra, leader of theopposition in West Bengal Assemblyduring his deliberation in the opensession at Town Hall maidan which wasoverflown by thousands of people ofBurdwan town and adjacent areas andWBMSRU members, criticized the neo-liberal onslaughts of the Centralgovernment and growing attack on thedemocratic rights and institutions anddeterioration in law and order in WestBengal. Others who spoke in the opensession include WBMSRU generalsecretary Sumahan Chakraborty, AinulHaque, Burdwan Municipality chairmanand chairman of the receptioncommittee.

CITU general secretary Tapan Senwhile greeting in the delegate sessionelaborated the world wide economic

271 including 4 women delegates,28 observers and 3 special observersfrom Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhandparticipated in the 15th conference ofUPMSRA held at Moradabad from 14to 16 September.

The conference began with hoistingof UPMSRA’s flag by its president, R. K.Srivastava and paying floral tributes tothe martyrs’ column. FMRAI presidentR.Vishwanathan formally inauguratedthe conference. In the open session, themain speakers were chairman receptioncommittee and former mayor ofMoradabad and leading surgeon Dr.S.T.Hassan, vice chairperson ofreception committee Mrs. VeenaGupta, secretary IMA Moradabad,FMRAI’s former general secretaryJ.S.Majumdar and U.P state CITUsecretary Premnath Rai. A colourfulprocession on the inaugural day wastaken out from Gulzari MalDharmshala to the venue, PanchyatBhawan after passing the mainthoroughfare of Moradabad.

Dr. S.T.Hassan in his welcomeaddress briefed about the 400 years oldglorious history of Moradabad and itsrich heritage and contribution made bycommon man of Moradabad during thefreedom struggle.

56 delegates participated in thediscussion on general secretary and

15th Conference of UPMSRA

crisis and the fanatic attempt of thecapitalists to shift their crisis to the otherpart of the world. He further mentionedthe plight of the common people due tothe imperialist dictated policy pursuedby the central government, massivecorruption and the political situation ofthe state and called for vigorouscampaign amongst people to preparethem for bigger movement. SahidulHaque, M.P. and advisor of the receptioncommittee, peasant leader, Amal Haldaralso addressed the delegates.

51 delegates including 3 womendelegates from all 19 districts discussedon both the general secretary andtreasurer reports, placed by SumahanChakraborty and Sisir Saha respectively.Following reply, both the reports wereadopted unanimously. The conferencealso adopted various resolutionssupporting country-wide general strikeon 20-21 February in next year, againstprice hike, for making success of goldenjubilee year conference of FMRAI, forreaching 14200 membership in 2012,against attacks on the field workers of

Cosme Farma and Dr. Reddy’s Labs, insupport of Left front candidate in ensuingJangipur Loksabha election and onother issues.

FMRAI’s general secretaryD.P.Dubey, its joint general secretaryAlok Banerjee, secretary in charge of thezone, Sanjay Chatterjee, Amal Haldar-vice president-Kishan Sabha, OSRUvice president B.K.Dash, CRU generalsecretary Bijan Das, and BSSRUsecretary Ashim Halder also greetedand addressed the conference.

The conference unanimouslyelected 61 state committee membersand 11 permanent invitees re-electingRabin Deb, Sumahan Chakraborty andSisir Saha as president, generalsecretary and treasurer respectively and210 general council members. RabinDeb gave presidential speech and voteof thanks.

Presidium consisting of Rabin Deband vice presidents- Madhusudan Som,Debasish Chattopadhyay, Madan Dasand Ratan Rakshit conducted theconference.

treasurer reports, placed by RakeshPandey and Hemant Singh respectivelyand made valuable contributions. Afterreplies, both the reports wereunanimously adopted by theconference. FMRAI’s vice presidentDeepak Bhattacharya and workingcommittee member Amitava Guha alsoaddressed on this occasion.

15th conference adopted constitutionamendment resolution renaming theunion as Uttrakhand Uttar PradeshMedical & Sales RepresentativesAssociation (UPMSRA) with areas ofoperation in both Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand. The other resolutionsadopted in the conference include onone day strike by the field workers of

Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh againstthe transfer of the president ofUPMSRA by Alembic management, ongolden jubilee year conference ofFMRAI, on field workers’ country-widegeneral strike on 4 December, on twodays general strike by all central tradeunions and industrial federations on 20- 21 February, 2013, against price rise,on minimum wages, against CosmeFarma, Abbott, Pfizer and MSD andagainst USV.

The 15th Conference elected a 25members’ secretariat with R. K.Srivastava as president, Hemant Singhas general secretary and D. D.Chatterjee as treasurer and 26 stateexecutive committee members.

110 field workers of from various parts of Gujaratmet in a state level council convention at Vadodaraon 16 September for consolidating andadvancement of council organization andmovement in Gujarat. Following the joint session,field workers met council wise separately. West zoneconveners Naveen Gupta, Devroop Biswas, TuhinChakraborty, Ravi Chaudhary of Elder, Albert David,Dey’s and Lupin councils respectively; Maharashtrastate conveners of Johnson & Johnson, Svizera,Wallace and other council leaders helped andguided these meetings.

FMRAI’s joint general secretary A. K. Banerjeeduring his deliberation in the open sessionexplained the attack on the rights of the field workers

Council Conventionin Gujarat

in this neo-liberal stage vis-a-vis resistance of fieldworkers through FMRAI’s council movement andemphasized on the urgent need of buildingorganization and movement. Others who spokeinclude the zonal conveners of the zone, GSMRApresident Phalgun Trivedi, general secretary M. N.Dattani, joint secretaries Paras Seth, SanjayPancholi and other leaders of GSMRA. NagendraSingh elected as convener of GSMRA state councilsub-committee.

120 members of OSRU’s Sambalpur unitparticipated in a blood donation camp at the campusof district IMA, organized by the Sambalpur districtcommittee of OSRU on the eve of FMRAI’s goldenjubilee year. The camp was inaugurated by Dr.Panchanan Patel, CDMO, Sambalpur in presenceof Dr. R K Panda, SDMO and Dr. Salila Mishra, bloodbank in-charge of district head quarter hospital. 39units of blood was donated to blood bank.

Blood donationcamp at

Sambalpur

Blood donationcamp at Ratlam

13 members of MPMSRU’s Ratlam unit donatedblood on 17 September as a part of all India blooddonation drive conducted by Terapanth YuvakParishad.

Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra addressing in the open session

UPMSRA conference in progress

Women field worker donating blood

FMRAI’s joint general secretaryA. K. Banerjee addressing the convention