Unreasonable Demands
For once, it is not the CITU, but its rival unions, who have provedthemselves irrational. The Hindustan Motors plant at Uttarpara near Kolkata(which manufactures the Ambassador cars) has been embroiled in labour troublesince early March. Trouble started when some employees' unions' leaders,demanding payment of back wages and withdrawal of a freeze on dearnessallowance, assaulted senior managers. This led to suspension of 15 suchemployees and that led to a full-blown agitation. Since then, the management haspaid the back wages, but pointed out that since the employees have approachedthe court on the DA freeze, the matter is sub-judice, and therefore thesuspension of the errant employees has not been withdrawn. The plantmanufactures 1000 to 1300 Ambassadors a month, but due to the steep decline inthe car's market share, incurs losses of more than Rs 20 crore a year. Themanagement has framed a plan to rejuvenate the plant and take it out of the red.At such a time, this recalcitrance by a (militant) section of the employees whohad even physically prevented those willing to work (mainly CITU-affiliatedemployees) from entering the plant and assaulted them has led to the managementdeclaring a lockout.