The Hindu Business Line : Tirupur knitwear workers to go on strike on Sept 18

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Tirupur knitwear workers to go on strike on Sept 18

G. Gurumurthy

Demand for wage-revision for three lakh labourers

The demands
The demand charter includes among others a 50 per cent increase in basic wages, house rent, dearness, night-shift and travel allowances, besides hike in marriage grants for women workers.

Coimbatore , Sept. 10

The labour scenario in the predominantly export-oriented knitwear industry in Tirupur may see an upheaval later this month, with six major central hosiery workers unions calling a one-day token strike on September 18. They are demanding a revision in the wages for the three lakh workers employed in the units there.

The 24-hour strike has been called to highlight the delay in reaching a new wage pact, which is due since June last, sources said.

"We are forced to announce the one-day strike on September 18, as there has been no progress in the talks the workers' union representatives had with the hosiery management associations so far," Mr M. Chandran, General Secretary of the Tirupur-based Centre of Indian Trade Unions-affiliated Banian and General Workers Union, said.

The joint committee of the six hosiery workers unions affiliated to the AITUC, CITU, INTUC, LPF, ATP and MLF has raised a 13-point charter of demands, since the expiry of the previous three-year wage accord in May.

The demand charter includes among others a 50 per cent increase in basic wages, house rent, dearness, night-shift and travel allowances, besides hike in marriage grants for women workers.

The four rounds of negotiations held so far, between the workers representatives and the leading hosiery trade/management associations were unable to break the impasse.

The representatives of Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA), Knit Cloth Manufacturers Association (KniCMA), Tirupur Export Knitwear Manufacturers Association (TEKMA) and South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association (SIHMA), who were initially opposed to any hike in the wages citing stiff international competition in hosiery exports, are insisting on a long-term wage settlement valid for next five years, with no increase of wages during the first year.

The management bodies' offer of three per cent hike in wages in the second year and a uniform two per cent increase for the third, fourth and fifth year, respectively, was not acceptable to the unions.

`Unwarranted'

Tirupur hosiery manufacturers associations have, in the meantime, termed the hosiery workers' decision to call the one-day strike on September18 as `unwarranted', saying it would seriously affect the industrial peace, harm the industry as well as the workers.

"By announcing the strike, even as the negotiations were on, the unions have failed to see the reality of the competitive environment evolving in the garment industry. The one-day strike would cause wage loss to the tune of Rs 3.5 crore for the Tirupur workers," said Mr A. Sakthivel, President of the TEA.

Sensing the mood of the workers and the stalemate in the wage negotiations, the State Labour Department has called the Tirupur hosiery industry representatives and the workers unions for conciliatory talks here on September 15. The CITU has also planned to stage a demonstration before the TEA's administrative office in Tirupur on September13.

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