Strangulating Strike

As in few other countries, railways in India provide the vital arteries of commerce, superseding airplanes, pipelines and highways. Masses of passengers stuffed into third-class coaches are as much a part of the Indian scene today as they were in Kipling's raj. But even more than carrying people, India's trains are necessary to keep the country's economy moving. Nearly 70% of India's food, fuel and freight are transported in 420,580 railway cars over the system's 39,000 miles of tracks. Indian Railways is the fourth largest in the world* and India's largest single employer, with 1.4 million workers. Last week the rail system was hit by a strike that could strangle the country. Despite the jailing of 1,500 union leaders and tough government warnings that the strike was illegal, nearly half the railway workers walked off their jobs.

Though most of Indian Railways' locomotives run on coal, rising petroleum rates are significantly responsible for the current financial woes of the government-owned system. Reason: climbing prices for fuel oil and petroleum-based fertilizers have aggravated the worst inflation in the nation's modern history, 27% last year. In response to spiraling prices (the cost of a kilogram of wheat increased from 10-c- to 13-c- last month alone), railway workers are demanding a 75% wage boost; their pay now ranges from about $35 a month for unskilled laborers to $160 for engineers, roughly the prevailing scale for Indian industrial workers.

The government notes that railway workers, unlike most other laborers in India, enjoy low-rent housing, subsidized medical services, free travel and special schools for their children. Granting their demands, says the government, would cost an inflationary $600 million.

Staggering Shortages. The strike could end up costing even more. Rail strikes in India have an impact similar to auto strikes in the U.S. Ever-widening circles of related industries are damaged, including companies dependent upon steel, fuel and all the sundry raw materials transported by trains. Most experts feel the economy cannot tolerate a strike for more than ten days. Then there would be staggering shortages of everything from food to fertilizer in a nation of 600 million people, 50% of whom suffer chronic food deficiencies.

The possibility of such drastic repercussions has hardly made the striking railwaymen popular. Nonetheless, many Indians were outraged when Railway Minister Lalit Narayan Mishra, 51, precipitately arrested George Fernandes, 43, a Socialist from Goa who is president of the All India Railwaymen's Federation, and other union leaders while they were in the midst of negotiations. One of the unionists died in jail of a heart attack. Mishra claimed authority for his harsh action under India's Maintenance of Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention. Opposition forces in Parliament, including the pro-Moscow Communists who usually support Indira Gandhi, decried the antistrike measures. Nonetheless, when they offered a no-confidence motion, Mrs. Gandhi's huge Congress Party majority defeated the measure.

Though the government claimed that no more than 8% of the work force responded to Fernandes' call, militiamen had to be mobilized to man emergency rail services. In Bombay, at least, the strike appeared far more effective than the government claimed. The 1,278 suburban trains that normally carry almost 3 million passengers daily were idle, keeping almost 50% of the city's workers away from their jobs. In many areas, even where minimal train service has been maintained, food prices have jumped 40% to 50% as housewives hoarded such staples as rice and cooking oil in fear that the strike would eventually paralyze the country.

* Behind the U.S., the Soviet Union and Canada.

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