and are forced to spend
longer hours to earn far less
uncertain casual employment.
Some workers are forced to go for
the works of mining stones on river
beds breaking stones. Most of the
tea garden workers threatened by
hunger are single women, those
ailing and elderly. These women,
who break stones, get only Rs 70
for a week. In a month they earn
not more than Rs 150 at the most.
Several young workers have
migrated to Bhutan, Kerala, Delhi
and Tamil Nadu. Children of these
tea garden workers are also forced
to work and bring some food to the
family table.
Thus the future and survival
of 15,000 workers of Duncan Tea
Company and their families has
been jeopardized, due to the
inhuman and illegal abandonment
of the tea estates.
Neither the labour department
nor the trade unions have done
anything to hold the Duncan
Goenka management accountable
for creating this devastating human
crisis by plunging its workers in to
condition of perpetual starvation
and untold distress.
The states instead of protecting
the workers from the wiles of
exploitation of the plantation owners
have been morally and legally
defending the culpable tea
plantation owners and their willful
defaulted managements, leaving
away the workers defenseless
thrown to the edge of survival.
So it is imperative that the
workers of this country have to
unite and organise themselves on
the basis of class-orientation and
class-politics to protect their class
interests through a path of
continuous struggle on their own –
not exclusively relying on the
ineffective workers movement of
the established trade unions that
had long before failed to deliver the
goods.
Jute Mill Workers in A.P. in Distress
T he managements of jute
mills in A.P., having been playing
havoc with the lives of their workers,
through various foul means with
impunity. Neither the state
government nor the central
government nor even the prevailing
system of justice are coming to the
rescue of workers and the workers
of this industry are left defenseless
being rendered jobless due to the
wiles of the managements. Under
the false pretext of losses, unable
to compete in liberalised global
conditions.
Illegal lockout of Aruna Jute
Mills in Vizianagaram
ARUNA JUTE MILLS of
Vizianagaram is one of the units in
the management of Sri Lakshmi
Srinivasa (ARUNA) Jute Mills in the
district.
The management has been
systematically playing with the lives
of the workers by imposing illegal
lock-out of its factories, rendering
jobless its workers. Moreover it has
been acting as a willful defaulter by
not paying the subscriptions to the
P.F., gratuity and insurance
companies; though it has been
deducting the due subscription
amounts of workers from their
12
wages. Added to this the
management has been willfully
defaulting by not paying its
electricity bills. Thus the
management of Aruna Jute Mill
intends only to impress and to
establish that they are in losses.
The administration which often
shows its might against common
petty man for failing to pay
electricity bills and other failures in
payment of other bills or instalments
of loans by implicating in various
cases and prosecutions, is willfully
and conspicuously closing its eyes
against the willful defaults of the
jute mills in their statutory
responsibilities, without taking any
action what so ever.
18 months back the
management of Sri Lakshmi
Srinivasa Jute mills has illegally
closed its East Coast Jute unit,
again in January 2015 it closed its
Bobbili unit and presently in
November, it has illegally locked-out
the Aruna Jute mills in Vizianagaram,
leaving 2,600 workers jobless.
This lock-out (illegal) imposed
by the management is not due to
the losses it is incurring as being
claimed by it. In fact from July 2015
onwards the jute mills have plenty
of indents from government and
there are more than enough orders
up to March 2016. But it is apparent
that with an ulterior motive, the
management of Aruna Jute mills
has resorted to illegal lock-out. It
has been cunningly provoking the
workers by not remitting the P.F.
amounts of 11 months from Nov
2014 to Sept 2015, and L.I.C.
premium amounts to concerned
companies though those amounts
were deducted from workers’
wages. It has been not paying the
due gratuity amounts payable to
concerned workers. Even it had
announced lay-offs by willfully not
procuring the required raw Jute for
production. Despite all these
provocations, workers remained
peaceful without falling prey to
these unfair labour practices and
tactics of the management and
maintained industrial peace with
utmost hope that the management
would run the mills and keep them
in their jobs to earn their lawful
lively-hood.
One of the main reasons for
the illegal lock-out of Aruna Jute
Mills is the management’s real
estate considerations in view of the
surging real estate demands since
Class Struggle