Till recently on the threshold of, resurgence, the jute industry is back in the throes of crisis, this time relating to wage negotiations
Fiscal 1998-99 has been a year of premonitive developments for the beleaguered domestic jute industry as it prepares to face the next millennium sick, incompetitive, ridden with seemingly irreconcilable labour problems and forsaken by an apathetic state government.
TWO particular developments or crises, in the perceptions of a deeply pessimistic industry, have sounded the begining of the end for the golden fibre:
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Withdrawal of the Indian Jute Mills Association (Ijma) from wage negotiations.
Scrapping of the mandatory packaging reservation of cement jute bags and partial dilution of the reservation in the urea and sugar sectors.
The withdrawals of Ijma from wage negotiations has far-reaching and negative implications for the labour, mill owners and government alike. The withdrawal is roted in serious fissures within the Ijma membership on the fundamental issue of wage settlement decisions.
At an emergency meeting on February 23, 1999, members declared their preference for bipartite wage agreements against the prevailing system of tri-partite settlements. The meeting was the fallout of a month-long agitation by trade unions against an ljma directive to members to refrain from payment of the enhanced dearness allowance.
Tbe freeze on DA declared by Ijma pegged the payment on the basis of 2000 CPI index (1960-100) as at present and adjustments would be made in case the index fell below 2000. As per the unions' demand, the DA increase would translate into an increase of Rs 500 per worker.
The DA crisis, as it is now referred to, snowballed into a state-wide agitation bringing into focus the political leadership in the state, the trade unions and of course the mill owners. More significantly, it brought into question he legal sanc