KIRAN PANDAY

A campaign by the Maoist unions in the past weeks has closed down factories, harmed workers and threatens to unravel the party's own plan to boost investment and create jobs.

Although the unrest is made to look like a labour issue, trade unionists say it is a guise to extort money, get jobs for cadres and relatives and a strategy to control the business sector.

"They are not trade unions but political pressure groups, and will not benefit the workers," says Bishnu Rimal of the Federation of Trade Unions.

In its latest campaign this month, the Maoists have broken an agreement they made jointly with other unions on the minimum wage and have forced the closure of hundreds of factories and firms across the country. It is using an ambiguous clause in the government's minimum wage decision in October to unilaterally push a populist agitation.

The campaign is led by the head of the Maoist trade union, Salikram Jamarkattel who during the war was involved in extorting money from businesses, bombing and kidnapping owners who refused. His union has also been targeting multinational companies, forcing many to close shop, thus reversing the gains Nepal made in the 1990s to attract foreign investment.

"It's got to a point now where even big domestic investors feel it's just not worth it," says industrialist and CA member, Rajendra Khetan, "If things don't improve we'll all soon be NRNs." Khetan's Gorkha brewery has just shelved its plan to open a new manufacturing unit for Carlsberg beer near Biratnagar and is moving abroad. Colgate Palmolive decided to quit Nepal, citing militant labour as one of the reasons. The biggest foreign investor in Nepal, Dabur Nepal, has put ambitious expansion plans on hold. Foreign investors who were thinking of coming to Nepal to set up manufacturing units are moving to Himachal and Uttaranchal, citing the lack of rule of law in Nepal.

"This is the worst investment climate we've ever had," says labour specialist Narayan Manadhar, "businesses are completely demoralised, and the unions have been cowed down by the Maoists."

Trade unions here have traditionally been beholden to their patron political parties and not to the workers. "Nepali trade unions were run like NGOs and were spoilt by funding," says Maoist-nominated CA member Hari Roka, who says the Maoist unions have just moved into the vacuum they left.

However, the Maoists are now determined to dominate the business sector even if it means getting the Labour Ministry that they control to illegally register unions. This has sidelined established unions that represented the genuine voice of the workers.

Although Maoist unions themselves have misgivings about this trend, analysts say, Prime Minister Dahal appears to be either unable or unwilling to control the militant ways of Jamarkattel and his team.