JOURNEY OF CANARA BANK OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION
The Officers felt the need to overcome the various oppressive tactics of the Management through unionisation. In many banks, Officers started unionising in mid sixties. Officers in Banks like State Bank of India, Central Bank of India organised themselves. In Canara Bank the trend towards organising started slowly. Frustrated and disgusted with the Management’s lack of proactive approach to the issues of Officers, many of the Officers who were militant during the clerical tenure approached the leaders of the workmen union appealing to them to form an Officers’ wing within the Employees’ Union. Their hope was that an Officers’ wing of AIBEA formed by the members of employees‟ union would be very strong and effective. In sharp contrast with this expectation, the senior leaders of workmen union snubbed the young Officers by saying “you will be our rivals and therefore, liabilities to us, we can’t help you.” The Officers did not have statutory protection unlike the workmen. Apart from this, employees’ union leaders had an aversion to the concept of workmen-officer unity. Because of these reasons the workmen union leaders did not respond to the appeal of the Officers.
THE FORMATION OF OFFICERS‟ CLUB IN 1966
A group of Officers in Mumbai (Then Bombay) came together and had series of Meetings to work out a plan. In the initial stages, the Officers working at Mumbai came together and formed the Officers’ Club in 1966. The late Sri.N D Kotak, Sri.V P Kamath, Sri.K N Kini, Sri.M P Shenoy took the lead in forming the Club at Mumbai. Simultaneously efforts were on at Madras, Bangalore and Mangalore. The Officers’ Club was formed at Chennai with Sri.C R Vaitheeswaran, Sri.D P Srinivasan, Sri.N Kalyanasundaram, Sri.Thanikachalam taking the lead to form the club. Similar efforts were made at Mangalore and Bangalore. Stalwarts of the movement such as Sri.M G Pai, Sri.Vikram Maliye, Sri.P P Nayak, Sri.B B Nayak, Sri.B R Kamath, Sri.H R Shenoy were actively involved in the formation of the Club.
REGISTRATION OF CBOA IN 1970
The success of the indefinite strike in State Bank of India in 1969 gave an impetus to formation of Association of officers in different Banks including Canara Bank. At the end of the year 1969, after nationalisation of 14 major commercial Banks, it was felt that there should be one and united Association. As a result, in the beginning of 1970 the leaders from all the centres came together and had a series of Meetings to workout a plan. The Canara Bank Officers’ Association was registered under Trade Union Act-1926 in February, 1970.
