National Tanneries from Birth to Dissolution - Chronicles of a pro-industrialization, pro-workers government
By Subhendu Dasgupta. Translated by Debarshi Das, Sanhati
1905: Birth of National Tanneries.
1950s: Peak performance of the Tanneries. Its products get global recognition.
1969: Shoe manufacturing division is founded. At that time except Bata, no other shoe manufacturing unit existed in East India.
1970s: Company starts to sicken. Reason is not workers’ militancy, which is the received wisdom. Lack of initiatives and financial profligacy of the owners were the factors.
1983: Industrial Reconstruction Bank of India (IRBI) takes over the management of the company.
1985: IRBI dissolves the governing body and quits. National Tanneries survives by servicing orders sourced from outside. Bata used to supply hide and chemicals, National Tanneries used to manufacture shoes. West Bengal Government declares it a ‘Relief Undertaking’. The implication is, to recover interest payments from this sick unit the credit institutions can not take the recourse to law. Workers were not getting even half of their due wages.
Late 1980s: The State Trading Corporation shows interests to undertake production in National Tanneries. The finance minister of the Left Front Government did not even bother to meet the chainman of State Trading Corporation. Because the Left Front Government wants industrialisation.
1989: National Tanneries is referred to Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). Sick unit cases are generally sent to this department. There were no proposals for rehabilitation, so the BIFR decided to liquidate National Tanneries. Liquidation implies auctioning off.
1990: Calcutta High Court gives the verdict that National Tanneries should be sold off as a running organisation. Official liquidation department appoints a governing committee constituting of five workers’ representatives to run the organisation till it is sold off. Two of them are from CITU (of CPM), two from INTUC (of Congress), one from officers’ association. The chairman is general secretary from the CITU run union.
No election to the union was there. No popular representative of the workers was elected. Self-proclaimed leaders came to run the company. When the company was under this body, the workers were not getting even Rs. 400 per month. Workers have protested the financial bungling by the directors with the labour minister, without any result. This was not surprising. Union leaders and the labour minister belong to the same political party.
Finally the workers pleaded the High Court. Complaints were of corruption, non-payment of wages, non-deposit of provident fund etc. High Court orders an enquiry. Trade union leaders were miffed. As revenge against the workers, canteen was shut down. Payments to workers stopped. Workers had not received payments for seven months. Five machines of shoe manufacturing unit were sold off. Those who placed order from outside were told to take back their raw materials. Leaders of workers were on a war path against the workers.
1991: The governing committee constituting of workers’ leaders declares lock out at National Tanneries. This is the first time that union leaders, union leaders of the Left Front Government, shuts down a factory. On the plea of the workers the High Court orders that canteen has to be reopened, work has to be restarted, due payments have to be paid, sold off machines have to restored. The special enquiry officer appointed by the High Court reports, trade union leaders of the governing party could not account for eight lakh (eight hundred thousand) rupees. The High Court orders this eight lakh have to be utilised to partially meet the payments due to the workers. None of these orders were heeded by the union leaders, they did not care much for the High Court. Trade union leaders of the governing party are not listening to court orders! This is the condition of the State.
The court had ordered the National Tanneries to be sold off. The Left Front Government informed the court that it would pay fifty lakh rupees. The paltry sum made the court hesitant initially. The government submitted that it would buy National Tanneries as a running organisation and would pay off all the dues to the workers after consultations with them. Trusting the government on its words the workers appealed to the court that it may please accept the offer of the Left Front Government. The court orders that the owner of the National Tanneries is the government and it ordered the government to meet all the dues of the workers.
The due payment of the workers was to the tune of *** [not clear] crore fifty lakh rupees (fifteen million). Forget about that sum: the government had assured the court that the fifty lakh rupees with which it is buying the factory would be used to make payments due to the workers. The government paid five lakh in the first instalment, ten lakh in the second. And none after that. The official liquidator, therefore, appealed to the court for compensation of twenty five lakh rupees. The legal representative of the government informed the court it needs time to pay the balance of thirty five lakh rupees.
1992: West Bengal Government takes over National Tanneries. About two years later the finance minister of West Bengal states in the Economic Review: the state government has taken over National Tanneries.
1994: The government had promised the court that all the dues of the workers would be paid off. It did not keep the promise. The workers had to approach the court once again. The court once again directs the government to hand over fifteen lakh rupees to the workers. From 1994 to now the Left Front Government has spent only fifteen lakh rupees apart from the fifty lakh which it had promised to the workers. However the due payment of the workers is *** crore fifty lakh. Each worker has received a paltry sum of three thousand five hundred rupees. Left Front Government is workers’ government. It is often written in the walls.
In 1991 while taking over the factory the government had promised the court that it would open the factory itself, or through its representative, as soon as possible. In 1994 it once again informed the court that the factory would be opened soon. When in November the workers went to meet the chief minister he assured them that industrial reconstruction department would look into the matter and submit a report within seven days. After that arrangements would be made to open the factory. This did not happen. Left Front Government is in favour of industries: statements from the chief minister, Industry minister of such nature are often published in news papers.
1996: The state government invites promoters in advertisements in The Statesman and Sanmarg, for opening National Tanneries. Minister of industrial reconstruction department made a statement in his budget speech that the state government has purchased the property of National Tanneries from the official liquidator, and steps are being taken to open the factory soon.
1999: Three years later the state government again submits to the court that National Tanneries would be open very soon. Workers have been paid three thousand five hundred rupees per head, which is the total payment made from 1994 till now. Trade union leaders often make speech that the Left Front Government is for the workers.
2003: In 1991 the workers had pleaded to the court that the factory be handed over to the government. Since for eleven years the government has failed to start the factory the workers now informs the court that there is one industrialist (Basanto Saha) who would pay one crore seventy lakh rupees to buy the machinery of the factory and would pay sixty five lakh rupees to meet the dues of the workers. The government’s pleader objected: since the factory is situated in a densely populated area it can not be reopened in the same location. Left Front Government stated that the factory property would be handed over to an organisation chosen by the government, which would build environment-friendly industry. The time gap between government’s purchase of the factory and Supreme Court’s stay order is eleven years. The government has not been able to start the factory in this eleven years. Though it’s a government for industries.
The government informs the court that instead of opening the factory it would demolish it and build a ‘garment park’ in collaboration with private partners. Those workers of National Tanneries who are physically capable, eligible for such work, would be recruited in the project. Those who are not, would be given compensation. The parameters for physical competence and eligibility are not stated.
2004: The Left Front Government dismantles the machinery of National Tanneries, demolishes the factory. The workers are not informed before the demolition. Dues are not paid. Needless to say the Left Front Government is for industries, for workers.
2007: Three years after the demolition of National Tanneries the Industries minister of the government writes in a booklet that National Tanneries is an undertaking of the government. Whatever the government says is the complete truth. All its claims in hoardings and banners we can see all around are nothing but the truth. For the National Tanneries workers the Left Front Government has stopped the dole of five hundred rupees per month due to the workers of closed factories. Neither have their dues been paid. We all agree that the Left Front Government is for the workers.
One of the departments of the Left Front Government has sold the land of National Tanneries to another department for twenty crore rupees. Purchasing the property for fifty lakh and spending another fifteen lakh, one gets twenty crore on an investment of sixty five lakh. Net profit is nineteen crore thirty five lakh rupees. Government laps it up, workers have not been paid their dues. The government department which gets the land would sell it off to individual and organisational capitals. It’s much more profitable to sell the land of a factory than to run a factory. The government has turned into a land broker. However it’s claim is, it wants industries. Indeed.
During this industrialisation drive by the government many workers have died. Many have crossed their retirement age, many workers’ families are starving, many have committed suicide. Many have wasted their skill and capability hoping and waiting for the factory to reopen.
When in 2007 the minister of the Left Front Government announces that National Tanneries is a government undertaking, this means all its land and property belong to the government. However, production in the plant and responsibility towards the workers are not government’s headaches. This a new notion of industrialisation.
We have no doubt whatsoever that the Left Front Government is for industries, for workers. Those who are opposing its efforts will be treated accordingly.
This article first appeared in Pratidin