What is the state of workers in the new industrial zones of Tamil Nadu?
This conversation with a worker from Tamil Nadu, appeared in Shramik Istahar, May 2008. It has been translated by Koel Das, Sanhati.
I was conversing with Sudhakarda. Sudhakar Raut, originally from Orissa, used to work in a reputed private engineering factory in West Bengal. He lost his job after being victimized in a lock-out while fighting against the injustice of the factory owner. I met him a couple of days back when he talked about his experiences over the last one year.
He now works in a factory at “Export Promotion Industrial Park”, Gummidipoondi Taluk,Thiruvallur District, located at a distance of 45 km from the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This industrial park grew up in the last 10 years as a result of the new economic policies. About 200 or more factories here are foundry and rolling mills. These factories are known in the industrial quarters as “scrap industry”. The companies in the scrap industry buy metal scraps from within the country and outside. Then they melt the scraps in their own foundry and manufacture various metal rods, pipes, sheets etc. in the rolling mills. Since scrap is the principal material used in these factories, they are known as “scrap industry”.
Sudhakarda works in one such factory. Officially the owner has three factories, but in reality there is only one! The whole thing is a hogwash to bypass the law. A total of about 250 laborers work here. Majority of the work-force comes from Bihar-Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. (According to Sudhakarda, almost all of the laborers of Gummidipoondi’s scrap industry comes from these three states.)
The factory-owner mainly buys scrap from Singapore. The cost per kilogram is 3 rupees and 80 paisa. The scrap then comes to the foundry’s furnace. The furnace temperature is about 1200-1500 degree Celsius. The workers have to stand there itself and pour scrap into the furnace with spades. When the scrap melts, toxic fumes fill the foundry and in that very situation, the foam coming out of the hot, molten scrap is scraped out by a ladle and accumulated outside by the workers. Molten scrap gets accumulated on a pipe-like mold. The melted scrap quickly solidifies inside the mold. In this condition, within a span of 5-10 minutes while the mold is still quite heated from molten scrap, the solidified scrap is taken out by hammering the pipe-like mold lying on the ground. Then work at rolling mill begins.
Such are the working conditions - how much does the worker get? The whole factory runs on contract workers (although about 50,000 workers are employed in the park, there is no concept of permanent workers in the entire industrial park). The gross monthly salary of the workers starts from Rs. 2700, highest being Rs. 5000. There are no privileges like E.S.I./P.F. There is no fixed time for paying the salaries. No documented proofs are provided which verifies that the workers indeed work in that factory. The workers have to sign in the blank attendance register. There are no holidays. The work hours are 12 hours: 8 am–8 pm. On top of that, there is daily overtime if need arises, which boils down to 36 straight hours of duty in that heat. The accommodation includes a bunch of 100 sq. ft. sheds built within the factory premises-each shed is shared by 3-4 workers who have to spend the nights in that cramped space. The workers are given only a pair of gloves and a helmet for working in that hot condition. The conditions of all scrap factories in Gummidipoondi are similar.
Sudharkarda was saying that many a times, dangerous materials like small gas cylinders remain in the scrap, which explodes before melting and such molten scraps are scattered all around. And in many cases, the workers succumb or get injured by these explosive scraps. In case of minor accidents, the owners drop the workers to the hospital before washing their hands off the entire incident. But in case of fatalities, the owners just throw the body on national highway 5, outside the factory.
In an incident which took place just 2 months back, the pipe-like mold was placed on an upright position. Each mold weights about 1 tonne. Suddenly the mold somehow fell sideways. A worker was standing next to it. It fell on his leg and severed the front portion of his left foot into 2 parts. The incident took place in the night shift. In Sudhakarda’s words, their management is comparatively more benevolent. So they sent the worker to the hospital using their security personnel, but the security reported in the hospital that they found an unknown person in that condition at night in front of their factory on the highway, took pity on him and dropped him at the hospital.
Listening to Sudhakarda, I commented - “This looks similar to the behavior of factory owners of sponge-iron factories in the Asansol-Durgapur belt”. Sudhakarda gave a pitiful smile in my direction and said-“ Some of the workers I know from Orissa work in the spinning mills of Surat, and the same things happen there. You yourselves are telling us that all the owners follow the same principle countrywide. And all the governments are working according to these principles.”
After listening to everything, I asked him - “Sudhakarda, you are an active worker, do you think workers are compliant to everything?
Sudhakarda said with a grim smile, “Listen, there is not a single union in any factory in whole Gummidipoondi. At the end of the week, the police, leaders and the local goons collect “hafta” from the factory owners. The owners also give readily. There is only one reason- if the workers turn rebellious any day, then they can be taken care of immediately. Once the CPM tried to form an union in one of the factories there. Within one month, the factory folded and the owner started the same factory afresh in a new industrial zone in a new state. And the person from the CPM party who tried to organize the workers-his body was found by the highway a few days later.”
He continued, “ But do not think that the workers have no grievances. In my factory itself, once there was no salary given till the 22nd day of the month. In this situation, while taking shower on the factory premises, I suggested to my fellow workers, if we do not get salary tomorrow, we will not work. As it so happened, salary was delivered the day after, everyone got salary except the hammer men. So although the rest of the factory jobs continued, the hammer men refused to work, and hence there was no production. The owner did not think twice about paying the hammer men that very day. So, there is no reason to believe that the workers are succumbing to the situation. But it is also a fact that workers are getting scared. After all most of them are out-ofstate workers.”
Sudhakarda concluded by saying, “ I believe that if things keep going the way it is, you can be assured that the workers are going to explode soon. But in my opinion, nothing much can be achieved in a single factory. In order to do that, workers from different factories need to unite together. I do not know whether this will happen while I am there. But know this, if it happens, you will find me in the forefront.”
