The Hindu : Kerala News : Strike hits coir industry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Strike hits coir industry

Staff Reporter

Demand to implement 2002 agreement

ALAPPUZHA.: An indefinite strike called by a joint action council of coir factory workers and small-scale manufacturers of coir products crippled the functioning of coir factories in Ambalappuzha and Cherthala taluks in the district on Tuesday.

Small and big coir factories in the public and private sectors in the district remained closed. The striking workers obstructed the movement of coir products from factories.

The council is demanding the implementation of various clauses in the agreement reached between exporters of coir products, coir factory workers and small-scale manufacturers in the presence of the Minister for Coir in December 2002.

The council said the exporters had agreed to provide government-fixed wages to workers, end contract system in big coir factories, provide reasonable prices to small-scale coir product manufacturers who sold their products to exporters and to avoid middlemen from the coir industry. It alleged that the exporters had not implemented the terms.

The council said the workers would organise fast before the office of the Coir Corporation and three leading coir factories here on Wednesday.

The CPI(M) Alappuzha district secretariat asked the State Government to take immediate steps to end the strike. It asked the party local committees in the district to organise rallies in the district on May 5 in support of the striking workers.

Meanwhile, the Coir Shippers' Council, an organisation of coir product exporters, in a statement said the issues raised by the council were more political than industrial. It said the strike was an effort to destroy industrial peace and requested the Government to take steps to bring about better and healthier industrial relations in the industry.

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