On The Struggle Of The Jute Workers Of West Bengal
The tumult that has been rocking the jute industry of West Bengal for quite a few years now owes much of its roots to the feudal manner in which the functioning of the jute mills are conducted. The jute mill owners, most of whom run the mills on leas and are only interested in one-time huge profit, don the mantle of feudal Zamindars. Illegal lay-offs, suspension of works pertaining to the demands of the market are a regular feature. When the market is bad it is the workers who have to bear the brunt of the losses of the owners. The jute mill owners are notorious for forfeiting huge sums of Provident Fund and ESI money of the workers. The practices of illegally employing workers as budlee, zero, pugree and sometimes as apprentices or learners with low wages (in some cases as low as Rs.25/ per day) with no statutory benefits are rampant. The existing established central trade unions are playing second fiddle to the management for quite sometime now. The lull in the workers movement prevalent in the society at large was broken in the jute industry now and then with sporadic outbursts, sometimes associated with violent incidents rocking the industry, as was the case in Victoria and later in Baranagar Jute Mills. On one hand, a hugely anarchic situation with the feudal, anarchaic and autocratic manner of functioning of the mill owners and management and the central trade unions turning out to be more and more inactive on the other was the genera scenario of the jute mills in West Bengal . A vacuum was created in the jute workers' movement.
With the inception of the New Economic Policy the jute industry seemed to wake up from its slumber. It is perhaps the only industry after Rail and Telecom that engages workers by thousands. Hoping to garner super-profits in the wake of NEP the Indian Jute Manufacturers' Association (IJMA) had been pressuring the government to introduce several stringent and hard measures. Their primary aims were to break the existing wage structure (the only industry where the permanent and special budlees or temporary workers receive the same wages) and to reduce drastically the strength of the workforce. With clich? phrases like increasing the productivity, they had been trying to drastically increase the workload, reduce the work force, and reduce wages and other existing benefits thereby reducing the cost of production.
The central TU's who had been playing second fiddle, found them in a critical position. Tri-partite wage agreement had been held up for quite a some time. The workers, seething with anger, were turning restless, sometimes even violent. It was imperative for them to do something to contain the anger of the workers. In such a situation, all the federations called for a general strike in the industry in the year 2000. What happened was totally incredible in the history of jute workers' movement and perhaps of the trade-union movement of West Bengal in general. Defying all the federations, the workers voluntarily turned up for work in the day of the strike in a show of rebellion. Aghast and caught totally unaware, the leaders of the central trade union leaders were found scurrying off to announce that the strike had been withdrawn due to unavoidable reasons. This was the tip of the iceberg. The year that followed was a tumultuous year with sporadic incidents of spontaneous movements of the workers of different individual mills keeping the management and the central TU's on tenterhooks. Some of these movements often continued for a long period, as long as 6 months (as was the case in the Gondalpara Jute Mills). Everywhere the general scenario was the same. The workers, or, a section of the workers, revolting against the management and defying the established trade unions, struck down work of their own. These departmental strikes or Budlee workers' strikes very often led to the closure of then whole mill, since, in a jute mill one department is intrinsically connected with another. The workers were, in their own way, trying hammer where it hurt the most??production. This restlessness was increasing in dimension. The whole of the industry seemed to lie on a barrel of gunpowder. Amidst cries of mill owners that jute workers had turned into criminals (mangers fleeing for their lives) and their failure to rope in the militancy of the workers through the established TU's, the sate government had to deploy police focus forces inside some sensitive jute mills. A special jute cell was formed. But the workers cried foul. The adamant mill owners further tightened their belt by stopping the payment of the increased D.A.
Fearing a major fall-out (wage increment was stalled since 1995), 15 central TU's (including B.C.M.U) or federations came together again and chalked out a comprehensive programme. They were under pressure from both IJMA and the workers. A general strike was announced from 7 th January 2002 with a charter of demands listing 17 demands ranging from bonus, wage increment, payment of P. F. arrears and gratuity, abolition of bhagawala, allocating permanent to the existing temporary workers, etc. to the payment of payment of the arrears of the increases D.A. That this call was eyewash to pacify the workers become apparent when the central trade-union leaders, on the initiative of the Labour Minister of the West Bengal Government, sat in a tri-partite meeting with the mill owners on the 6 th of January 2002 and signed the blackest agreement in the history of the jute workers' movement. As per the agreement, productivity linked wages (up to 33.3% of the wages) would be implemented and thenceforth, new workers would be engaged with a daily wage of Rs.100.00 only. There was no mention of Dearness Allowance, of even a single paisa wage increment, leave alone the issue of raising the bonus ceiling. If the production, according to the standard norms of then mills, would be low, then up to 1/3 rd of the waged would be deducted by calculating the dip in the production and vice-versa. No reason would be accepted for a fall in production. Anybody accustomed with the mode of production of the jute mills know that the workers have to operate in nearly medieval conditions with age-old machines that breakdown every now and then and low-grade raw material that refuse to give a good standard production. Add to this the anarchic attitude of the mill owners who tend to shut down production whenever there is a low demand. As to the employment of low-wage workers, the general workers, especially those temporary workers who had been engaged in the industry for long (some as long as 20 years) feared that under the guise of new employment they would be given the new status of workers with wage of Rs.100.00 per day instead of Rs.170.00 per day ( on an average) that they had been receiving till date. As the news of the agreement and the withdrawal of the strike spread like wild fire, the 7 th of January (scheduled day of the strike) witnessed an unprecedented event that shook the whole industry. In spite of the withdrawal of the strike, the general workers very spontaneously and with a zeal rarely seen nowadays, went on wildcat strike. Not a single jute mill was am exception. Surprising everyone, the strike continued for 2 days in some mills, 3-4 days in some other and even fro more days in few others. The slow fizzling out of the strike is a different question though. Nevertheless, the strike instilled fear and hesitation in the hearts of all central trade unions and the management alike who could not master courage to implement the agreement in totality at the same time everywhere. Hence, they embarked upon a cunning plan, that of trying to implement parts of the agreement at a time in different mills and sometimes even in different departments of the some mill, hoping to create a riff in the unity of the workers. But whenever the management put up a notice to this effect, the workers burst into spontaneous movement, thus hampering its implementation. Meanwhile, the jute mill owners stopped the payment of the increased D.A. totally. The subsequent two years till 2004 saw a continuation of these upheavals Apart from the employment of workers with wages of Rs.100.00 per day productivity-linked wages could not be implemented till date (with the exception of 2/3 mills.) Resentment was rising and a fear of another spontaneous workers' outburst in the industry loomed at large. Despite repeated requests of the trade unions, the management retained its arrogant stand of freezing the D.A. The government too complied with the mill owners by maintaining silence.
In the meantime, BMS along with 4 other TU's started to take verbal stand against the management and other conglomeration of 15 TU's with the hope of cashing in on the vacuum created by the absence of alternative leadership. They called for an indefinite strike from August 2003, which was largely successful. But within 12 days they withdrew the strike on the plea that the central government had promised to intervene in the matter. The workers were once again disillusioned. The coalition of 15 federations prepared for another strike from December 2003. This time they were under pressure from the government and IJMA to contain the resentment of the worker and to implement the agreement. Moreover, they were suspicious of the joint activities of BMS and its partners who, they thought, might emerge as a contending force in the jute industry. They called for the strike promising to fulfil the demands of the workers. What made it interesting was that their charter of demands included the implementation of the agreement of 5 th January 2003 , which the workers had unanimously deemed as ?black'. The workers were nonplussed. They could not believe that the wage curtailment agreement could be implemented in real. They again participated, slightly unwillingly, in the strike, hoping against all odds their all demands, together with the payment of increased D.A. would be met. But little were they surprised, when after 11days the federations signed a tri-partite agreement ion 8 th January 2004 which turned out to be more horrible than the previous one in 2002. The main parts of the agreement are as follows: -
# The management will make payment of D.A. on increased cpi of 134 points with effect from 1.2.2004. Further increase of cpi points due to effect from 1.2.2004 will be paid from 1.8.2004, but will be effective from 1.2.2004 payable with effect from 1.5.2004 and 1.8.2004 and on the date of subsequent quarters respectively as per industry-wise agreement dated 2.12.1995 and 5.1.2002.
# The parties will finalise achievable norms of production of the individual mill, for the purpose of productivity-linked wages within a period of 4 months of the date of this settlement.
# As a gesture of goodwill the management agrees to increase the wages of all categories of workers including those of Rs.100.00 per day wage earners by Rs.10 per month.
Eight months have passed since the agreement was signed; yet the management is still hesitating to implement the productivity-linked wages. They are inching slowly, though, towards their target. There is pressure to increase the production drastically. Workers are complaining of the arrogant attitude of the mill owners.
This is the situation till date. Another spontaneous outburst is quite possible. But what will be the outcome?
The struggles of the jute workers of West Bengal are taking place a in condition when, generally speaking, a lull in the movement of the working class spanning over a long period is still continuing. So these struggles of the jute workers deserve our particular attention
The essential features of these struggles are: -
# These struggles are very much spontaneous. Whereas, the established central TU's have directly joined hands with the management, these outbursts are a direct rebellion against them. No force can claim to have a sway over them. The workers have, to a certain extent, separated themselves from the established TU's, at least physically.
# But thus separation is still far from complete in that the outcome of these struggles still lies in the hands of the established TU's. The leaders of these TU's still have the last say.
# A ray of hope does exist. The advanced workers of different jute mills have broken the shackles of the established oppurtunisticTU's and are coming forward and have formed in some mills, or, are trying to form in others their own TU's This movement is still in its natal stage and have to go a long way to establish itself as a strong, separate and independent stream of movement of the jute workers' of West Bengal.
How this ray can be developed into a bright sun?this is the moot question.
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