Mangala Apparels Workers’ Struggles in Delhi Continue

Since July 2014, workers of the Mangala Apparels factory located in the SMA industrial estate in Jahangirpuri, Delhi have been waging an organized struggle against violation of their legally mandated rights. The workers’ struggle began when a worker, Amar, died because he could not avail of medical treatment under the ESI scheme. The factory management had been resorting to the completely illegal practice of asking workers to sign on blank papers before ESI cards were issued – when Amar refused to do so, he was denied an ESI card and ESI services. Since then, the Mangala workers have resisted all threats of the factory management to form their own union affiliated to the AICCTU, and have been demanding implementation of all labour laws in the factory.

Ever since the formation of the Union in September 2014, the management has been employing all sorts of devious means to curb the growing workers’ struggles. First it ‘manufactured’ a fight with Ajay Singh, who was Secretary of Union, on 8 Oct 2014 to get the pretext for firing him. The police in the local Mahendra Park thana assisted the factory management in this gameplan, and arrived at the factory to pick up Comrade Ajay. Their efforts however were thwarted when hundreds of workers closed operations in the Mangala factory, and marched to the local police station against the arrest of Comrade Ajay. The management was forced to take the legal route to terminate Comrade Ajay, and suspended him pending a ‘departmental enquiry’. Once again, the local police helped the machinations of the factory management. Previously the police had first refused to file an FIR against the management for the crime of ‘Causing death due to Criminal Negligence’ in the worker Amar’s case, then they defended the factory management instead of properly investigating Amar’s death. In the Ajay Singh case too, the police tried to delay the matter in the Rohini court by failing to file their report on the complaint.

Moreover, police force was deployed all around the Mangala Apparels factory to threaten and put pressure on the workers, and this provided the management with another opportunity it was looking for. The factory management also fired the union President Santosh Jha and suspended Vice-President Pitambher in an attempt to break the union and the workers’ struggle. However, the workers did not relent and resolved to fight to defend their right to form a union. The factory management was then forced to concede to some of the workers’ demands. The factory management extended the facility of Provident Fund for many workers. It agreed to pay minimum legal bonus to all the workers, as well as a higher bonus for those on the ranks of supervisor and above.

The situation in the Mangala factory however continues to be tense, with the management using a carrot and stick approach to stall the union’s activities. It is also utilizing the absence of elected leaders to increase the threats on those who try to raise the voice of workers within the factory. In this situation, the ‘Mangala Apparels Workers Union’ approached Labour department for ‘General Checking’ for labour law violations. Following the persistent interventions of AICCTU, the general checking finally took place on 15 October. During this general checking, as expected, the ‘labour inspectors’ failed to cover around 130 workers in their spot visit to the factory and failed to note several of the labour violations.

AICCTU leaders subsequently met the Joint Commissioner of Labour Department, North West District, Delhi on 27 October 2014 to raise the issue of the flawed General Checking, where the factory management failed to produce labour records for two dates and the Inspector refused to cooperate with the written demand that the Inspector should be instructed to inspect the factory again to cover the remaining workers in the ‘General Checking’. In the ensuing heated debate on the issue between AICCTU representatives and the Joint Commissioner, the arguments offered by the Joint Commissioner for refusing the workers’ request basically reflect the impact on the ground of what is coined as the path-breaking ‘Labour Reforms’ to end the ‘Inspector Raj’ which will result in a ‘grand success’ for Modi’s ‘Make in India’ project: he claimed that he could not send the Inspector again to the factory because he would lose his job if he did so. Moreover, he stated that the practice of ‘general checking’ was going to be discontinued as per the instructions of the Modi government. After the repeated interventions of the AICCTU representatives, he merely agreed to allow the workers’ union to inspect the file of the labour inspector and add in writing objections as well as the names of the workers not included in the General Checking. In the face of all odds the workers are continuing to defend their right to form a union and have planned to take a campaign to propagate the whole issue among the workers of the entire SMA industrial area in the first week of November.

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