Pricol workers—and workers across the country in solidarity with them—are struggling to free the 8 Pricol comrades who have been sentenced to double life imprisonment through a well-calculated conspiratorial judgement in order to control and threaten workers’ unions. Meanwhile the Pricol management, in a despicable move, is trying to ‘advise’ the workers to break relations with AICCTU and return to the control of the management.
The management has put up a letter on the factory notice-board giving details of the great ‘losses’ suffered by workers since they joined the union affiliated to AICCTU and comparing this to the ‘peaceful’ times in the past before the formation of this union. The letter appealed to the workers to leave this union and return to the ‘comfortable’ times offered by the management. The management refused to provide a copy of the letter on the notice-board to the union as has been the previous practice.Earlier also in 2008 the management had issued a similar letter, when the union had not got recognition and the workers were agitating for recognition of their union.
Meanwhile, in another shameful move, the management fired a contractual worker who had contributed to the flood relief fund being collected by Pricol workers. The management has also issued a show-cause notice to another permanent worker on the pretext of some other excuse.
Between 2009-10 and 2013-14 Pricol workers used to get 35.34%annual bonus. During the period of their concerted struggle (from 2007 to 2009) they received no bonus at all. In 2014-15, they got only 8.33% bonus; this amounts to an average loss of about Rs 25,000 for every worker. The management cited losses in the factory as the reason for this reduced bonus. (However, Pricol workers have researched the internet and found that according to documents submitted by the management the profit for this period was Rs 23.27 crores). The management has made a unilateral cut in bonus and has not respected the provisions of the long-standing agreement between the management and the Pricol Workers’ Union, the only organization relentlessly confronting the management and which has repeatedly proved its majority in the union election process. When the union opposed this, the management deposited the reduced amount in the workers’ accounts; this is what it generally does when it is preparing to go into some major confrontation with the workers. This happened when the workers were participating in the hearing of the murder case and were anxiously awaiting the verdict on their falsely implicated leaders. The management thought they could take advantage of the situation as the workers would not be able to launch any significant agitation at this time, however the workers continue to protest against this.
Relentlessly carrying forward their struggles, the workers had organized a programme on 13 March 2016 to mark the beginning of the 10th year of their struggle in which Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya participated and gave an impetus to their confidence and resolve. More than 1200 workers and their families gathered at the programme and resolved that they would leave no stone unturned to strive for the release of their comrades. They were confident of doing so because their leaders had not gone to jail for charges of corruption as in the case of Jayalalithaa and Kanimozhi and Raja; on the contrary, they had gone to jail like VO Chidambaram whom the British had sentenced to double life imprisonment for fighting for the rights of workers. Coincidentally, the Pricol worker-leaders are also lodged in the same jail where the British had incarcerated VO Chidambaram.
The response of the workers who participated in this protest does not augur well for the management. One worker, an AIADMK supporter, said that his wife had attended such a gathering for the first time and was now insisting that she would vote only for a CPI (ML) candidate because that is the only Party fighting for a better life for workers. He further said that if, after attending just one meeting she is persuading me to change my political thinking, what would be the effect if she started attending such programmes regularly?
Some workers said that they normally meet only in protests and agitations; such a ‘family gathering’ had been organized for the first time after 10 October 2010. That programme in 2010 had also played an important role in breaking the siege by the police and the state after the first phase of state repression. Some other workers said that they often eat together inside the factory but those meals were mechanical and under pressure, whereas the spontaneous togetherness and exchanging of ideas and sharing of meals in the present programme was very inspiring and motivating. The workers were in favour of organizing such programmes more often.
For the Pricol workers, their struggle is almost like a celebration. The management might attack them; the state might attack them; even the court verdict can be an attack on them. But they will fight, and they will win, and each time they will emerge stronger and more united than ever. Now they are preparing for bigger political struggles. They are fighting elections from 2 Assembly constituencies in Coimbatore. Their slogan is, “Workers’ vote for a worker!” Can there be a better answer to the state and the management from the Pricol workers!
