LML workers' union loses registration

Though the registrar of trade unions in UP has rejected the registration of the LML workers union, the issue of workers' pending wages and the legality of the lock-out declared by the company is being fought in the Allahabad High Court.

LML's cessation of production in January and declaration of a lock-out, allegedly due to the workers going on strike, on March 7, have impacted almost all sections related to industry in Kanpur.

It was this factor that led to the coming together of trade unions on May 1 and the consequent formation of a trade union, Abhiyaan Samiti, which took up the issue of the reopening of the closed factories, especially LML's, compelling the government to take notice of the growing trade union movement.

Even before the joint memorandum of the trade unions was submitted to the district magistrate of Kanpur on May 14, the state government issued a show cause notice to the LML management, on May 12, which said that the state labour commissioner had found the workers of LML were ready to go back to work.

And so the management was asked to withdraw the lock-out. If it did not do so, the government would be compelled to prohibit it.

The rejection of the plea for the registration of the union by the registrar of trade unions came as a shock to the workers as "we had been assured of it", says union president J P Pandey. This, along with other reasons, has led to a minor exodus of workers to places like Gurgaon and Faridabad, where automobile plants are located.

There has been no sign of any new promoter either joining hands with the current management or taking over the company.

Ancillaries of LML have suffered a great deal. The whole chain has been broken, says a vendor. Those that were dependent on them, about ten in number, have closed down.

Many of the units are paying interest on the money they had borrowed from banks to do LML's jobs. The banks now want the money to be returned, unit owners say.

On rough estimates, these ancillaries employed about 4,000 people, of which about 2,000 have been retrenched. "Some of us," says one of the owners, "have paid the workers their gratuity and other statutory dues, but most others have not done that since they do not have money."