Titagarh opens, NJMC & Bharat to open today

Over two lakh jute workers have today joined an indefinite strike called by 15 workers' unions led by Citu, trade union of CPI(M) and Intuc, the Congress affiliated labour union.

The strike began peacefully and total in all 59 jute mills, barring Titagarh Jute Mill where work was normal. An official of Titagarh Jute Mill said the strike had no impact and workers reported for work. Four or five mills had already suspended work.

Ganesh Sarkar, an Intuc leader, said unions would allow workers of National Jute Manufacturing Company (NJMC) and Bharat Jute to join work tomorrow. "Considering that NJMC and Bharat have been passing through acute crisis, the unions decided to let the workers join work at these mills," he said.

The Centre and West Bengal government owns NJMC and Bharat respectively.

Kali Ghosh, a Citu leader, thanked workers for joining the strike and said jute mill owners should accept workers' demands to end the strike. About Titagarh, Sarkar said the mill owners were 'mischievous'.

The strike was called on an eight demand including immediate payment of arrears dearness allowance and implementation of a tri-partite agreement signed on January 5, 2002 with revision.

That the unions would go ahead with their strike became clear last week after the state government-convened tri-partite meeting failed to resolve the impasse.

Mill owners claimed they had offered to pay part of the arrears on dearness allowance (DA) and promised to pay the balance in installments on the assurance that workers would adhere to productivity norms.

Trade unions refused to accept the offer. Sources said Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and six affiliated unions opposed the strike but this had no impact. The BMS-led unions had opposed the 2002 agreement.