There has been an impact of workers' strike at Arvind, if not at its own plant at Naroda. Post strike at Arvind's, other textile mills in the city have hiked wages to pre-empt any untoward incident at their plants.
Among them are Diamond Mills, a textile processing house and Nandan Exim, the denim arm of Chiripal Group. While the former has hiked salaries in the range of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month, the latter is learnt to have offered a pay hike of about Rs 2,000-4,000 per month.
"We had to maintain stability at our processing plant considering the manpower turmoil currently going on in the industry in Ahmedabad. Hence, we have hiked salaries in the range of Rs 1,000-5,000 per month. We believe the hike will help our workers cope with the inflationary trends as well," said Narendra Patel, founder of Diamond Mills, referring to the ongoing strike at Arvind.
Workers at Arvind Ltd's denim manufacturing plant at Naroda had called for a strike on June 4, 2012 demanding a 40 per cent wage hike. The plant manufactures 84 million metres (out of total 108) of denim fabric, contributing 37 per cent to consolidated revenue in FY 2012.
According to Patel, as against Rs 8,000 per month, the workers at Diamond Mills now earn an average salary of Rs 9,500 per month. Founded in 1981, Diamond Mills takes up export orders for processing of grey cloth at a capacity of 100,000 metres per day.
Similarly, while Nandan Exim officials were unavailable for comment, industry sources say the denim mill has also increased salaries for shop floor workers in last one week. At a turnover of Rs 600 crore, the company manufactures 20 million metres of denim fabric per annum.
"At least three textile mills in the city have hiked salaries for workers at their premises in last one week. However, we are yet to hear anything from the management. Nevertheless, we are gaining support as workers from other textile mills under Lalbhai Group have met us," said Yashpal Jaiswal, worker union leader at Arvind Ltd.'s plant at Naroda.
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Jaiswal, however, added that while workers from Ashoka Mills and Asarwa Mills have met them, the latter haven't called for a strike at their respective plants yet.
Meanwhile, workers at Arvind's Naroda plant are getting an average salary of Rs 5,000-7,000 per month.