Trade union militancy hits Ncell

The All Nepal Federation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (ANFRTU) — a trade union affiliated to Mohan Baidya-led Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist — today damaged the Buddhanagar-based tower of Ncell.
Blaming the telecom service provider of ignoring the union’s demand to reinstate ousted employees of Hello Mobile, a group today damaged the KAT 208-908 at Buddhanagar, near New Baneshwor.
“The mobile connectivity of Ncell at Buddhanagar area was disrupted after our ‘action’,” claimed chairman of Nepal Printing Press and Publications’ Workers Organisation Janma Dev Jaisi, who also informed that the trade union wing will campaign against Hello Nepal in Dang too. “TeliaSonera — a Sweden based telecom giant — has invested in both Ncell and Hello Mobile of Nepal,” he added.
Trade union militancy coupled with intra-party rift in the Maoist has hurt not only the private telecom service provider but also subscribers.

The company has not yet calculated the loss and the number of subscribers affected. “Vandalism is a police case,” said corporate communications manager at Ncell Sanju Koirala.
“ANFRTU has started a campaign to destroy physical infrastructure from Buddhanagar and it will be expanded across the country if our demands are not fulfilled,” Jaisi said, warning the company not to carry out repair work until the issue is settled.
Writing to the concerned companies on Sunday, the labour organisation has asked all companies working for Ncell and Hello Nepal to remove their employees from the field.
This is not the first instance of the inefficiency of the caretaker government led by Dr Baburam Bhattarai in providing security to the private sector that has been losing confidence in the country, though Bhattarai repeatedly claims of boosting the private sector’s confidence to invest in the country.
Claiming that their friends were forcefully terminated by Nepal Satellite Telecom — Hello Nepal — the union had given a seven-day ultimatum to reinstate them in the first week of December.
However, Nepal Satellite Telecom said that the workers had left on their own will after a golden handshake.