Dunlop Workers Caned, Ministers Apologise

The situation at Dunlop India Ltd, the Manu Chhabria-controlled tyre major, was tense yesterday as around 3,000 workers, along with representatives of all four unions of the company, attended a meeting in Calcutta called by labour minister Santi Ghatak.

The meeting started at 11:30 a.m. Even as the representatives and the management were closetted in talks with the state finance minister, Asim Dasgupta, Ghatak and agriculture minister Naren Dey, a minor spat was brewing outside Writers' Building, the state secretariat.

Some workers, curious to know the outcome of the meeting, were standing in a prohibited area near the east gate of the Writers' building. When the workers got into an argument with the police stationed there, an officer suddenly ordered a lathi charge.

 

The three ministers came to know this and the matter became serious. Union officials and sources in Writers' Building told Business Standard that the ministers apologised to the representatives, and Dasgupta personally spoke to commissioner of police, Dinesh Bajpai, and demanded an explanation from the officer who ordered the lathi charge. Dasgupta then called the police officers in-charge at Writers' Buil-ding, and expre-ssed his displeasure over the incident.

Anticipating trouble, officers of Park Street police station, had stationed themselves outside Dunlop House, the company headquarters, since 9:30 a.m.

A source in the company said the tense situation was the result of a sense of frustration among the workers who have not received their wages since November.

The Sahaganj unit is saddled with a situation where wages have been overdue for long while salaries and wages of both the management and the workers at the head office have been paid, said the source.

Ashoke Pal, vice president of the CITU-affiliated workers union, said the current problems at the Sahaganj unit were also affecting the community around it.

Most of the shops in the residential area surrounding the factory are open only half the day as the workers have not received their wages for over three months. The shopkeepers are now getting reluctant to give their wares on credit, said Pal.