The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Raw deal to jute workers alleged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 23, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Raw deal to jute workers alleged

Correspondent

Meet will be held in Kolkata, says IFTU leader

— Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

meeting of minds: IFTU leaders Paltu Sen, Prasad and others at the first State convention of jute workers at Vizianagaram on Sunday.

VIZIANAGARAM: In the wake of attacks on rights of jute workers, appointment of workers under various categories such as contract, apprentice and badli and introduction of multi-tier wage structure in place of uniform wages, the Indian Federation of Trade Unions would be organizing a conference in Kolkata on July 6 to bring all the mill-level unions under the umbrella of All-India Federation of Jute Workers’ Unions, said Paltu Sen, president of the IFTU.

Wage revision

Speaking at the first State-level meeting of jute workers, organised by IFTU at Ananda Gajapathi Auditorium here on Sunday, Mr. Sen said that the wage revision of jute workers was done a decade ago with an increase of Rs.90 in the basic pay.

Thereafter the owners had freeze on dearness allowance despite a court order against such a step, he said and added that production targets, however, had been increased without recruiting personnel in proportion to the work load.

The owners were not keen on modernising the jute mills as they felt that the industry was a dying one. Hence, they did not utilize the loan amount of Rs. 280 crores offered to them by late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

He called upon jute workers to unite and fight for their rights under the AIFJWU.

B. Pradeep, IFTU national general secretary, criticized former Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyothi Basu for suggesting that the jute industry must concentrate on exports rather than on the domestic market.

He said that AIFJWU was being formed to unite workers and fight for their rights in future. P Prasad, IFTU state vice-president and convenor of State Jute Coordination Committee presided.

Earlier, the meeting paid tributes to five jute workers who were killed in a police firing at Nellimarla on January 29, 1994.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh