A dear friend and comrade from India spent months travelling the country, meeting workers in various cities. He wrote down notes after their conversation, which we share below. He met port workers in Mumbai and medical research workers in Hyderabad, car workers in Gujarat and young comrades in Tamil Nadu. Feel free to read more about the political history of the comrade’s group and about how we established an international connection.
*** Meeting a comrade in Darjeeling, November 2022
*** Meeting some workers in Mumbai, December 2022
*** Meeting workers in Chennai, June 2023
*** Bengal, November 2023
*** Conversation with a transport worker in Pune, end of 2023
*** Mumbai, December 2023
*** Conversation with a port worker in Mumbai, December 2023
*** Ahmedabad, December 2023
*** Five-Star hotel workers in Ahmedabad, December 2023
*** Food factory workers in Gandhinagar, December 2023
*** Conversation with a textile worker in Surat, December 2023
*** Conversation with a railway worker in Mumbai, January 2024
*** Train journey from Trivandrum to Chennai, 28-29 February 2024
*** Conversation with a young computer science graduate in Tamil Nadu
*** A brief interaction with MRF Tyre workers in Chennai
*** Poor peasant-pharma research worker, met in the train to Pune, March 2024
*** Conversation with a young worker in Faridabad, September 2024
*** Conversations with Factory Workers in Vadodara
*** TATA Motors Sanand factory worker, November 2024
*** General Motors and TATA Sanand factory worker, November 2024
*** TATA Motors Sanand factory worker, November 2024, Part Two
*** Worker who has worked both in Manesar and Sanand industrial areas
*** Conversation with a Ahmedabad Textile Mills Worker
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*** Meeting a comrade in Darjeeling, November 2022
Friends in Malda suggested to me to meet Moni Mohan Singha, Chakkarmari, Darjeeling district. The bus journey began at 6:30am on 12 November. After a bus breakdown on the way and then two shared autos, I reached Galgaliya at 1:45pm instead of 12noon. Moni Mohan ji was waiting for me. On a bike it took three of us ten minutes to reach Moni ji’s house adjacent to the national highway to Gauhati. It is at a trijunction of Bihar-Bengal-Nepal.
House of joint family with pond. Garden and agricultural land. Part of the house is a twenty four hour open shop on the national highway operated by Moni ji’s family. His social environment since 1992 onwards is a rural landscape.
In his late sixties, Moni ji seems to have lived a chequered life. Partition of 1947 brought his family from East Pakistan (Bangladesh) to the Indian side of the border. Grandfather, a graduate, motivated him to study.
At a very young age, Moni ji seems to have spent a significant amount of time in jail for political activities. There he was connected with Moni Singh, a renowned leader of East Pakistan Communist Party. Moni Mohan became interested in Marxist literature.
Moni ji seems to have read and reflected a lot. He can speak Bangla, Hindi, Urdu, and English. He writes in Bangla.
It seems that 1986 onwards, Moni ji has stopped propagating his variety of Marxism-Leninism. He seemed to be increasingly focused on caste/race identity politics.
From the moment we reached his house, Moni ji talked and talked and talked.
In the context of the vast expanse of Moni ji’s topics, we shared via WhatsApp, our December 2022 interactions with some workers in Mumbai in Hindi with him and some friends in Malda.
*** Meeting some workers in Mumbai, December 2022
Despite his absence from Mumbai, Rahul, Saathi Pyarelal’s son had made it possible to meet some workers yesterday (11 December 2022). After working as a temporary worker in Whirlpool and some other factories in Faridabad, many years ago Rahul had gone to Mumbai and started working as a tailor. Copies of Majdoor Samachar sent by post to Rahul were from 2016 sent via WhatsApp. In October, when Rahul was informed about the Mumbai journey in December he replied on WhatsApp that he had just reached Cairo airport to work in a garments factory in Egypt…
I met Saathi Pyarelal in 1982 in Faridabad. Tall & well built Pyarelal ji was working in the Forging Department of Gedore Hand Tools Company (headquarters in Germany). Saathi Chintamani was working there in the Plating Department. They had come from villages in eastern Uttar Pradesh in 1970 and besides working in the factory, they were active in Ambedkarite politics in Faridabad. Later Chintamani ji left Ambedkarite politics and became active in Maoist politics while Pyarelal ji continued in Ambedkarite politics. Saathi Chintamani was in the team that began publication of Majdoor Samachar in 1982 on a Leninist basis. In the first twenty years of Majdoor Samachar, many significant changes in the practice and ideas took place. Saathi Chintamani was lifelong in Majdoor Samachar.
Pyarelal ji lived in Gaikwad Jhuggies (shanties) adjacent to the New Town Station Faridabad. (All those shanties, 1500 in all, were demolished a few years ago by the government for the fourth railway line.) Pyarelal ji was active in DS-4 (Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti — Oppressed and Exploited Society Struggle Committee). Pyarelal ji was a participant in the long bicycle journeys of Mr. Kanshiram to propagate the Ambedkarite politics. His debates with Saathi Chintamani continued.
In 1983, Pyarelal ji invited us to hear a female leader of their organisation in the Public Library near the Gurudwara in NH-1 in Faridabad. Only five persons had reached amongst whom were two of us from Majdoor Samachar. The leader was a young slim lawyer, she was Ms Mayawati. We asked her about their organisation’s policy regarding factory workers and she bluntly replied that the whole attention of their organisation is focused on the oppression of dalit (downtrodden) castes in the villages.
After DS-4 was transformed into the Bahujan Samaj Party, Pyarelal ji was more active in the organisation. And in the Gedore Tools factories, for a large scale retrenchment of workers, physical attacks and other pressures on workers unfolded. After Ms Mayawati became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the troubles for Pyarelal ji’s emotions began. The process for sidelining one by one of those who had been active for years in DS-4 & then in Bahujan Samaj Party and behaved as equals in the organisation commenced as soon as Ms Mayawati came to power. Then Pyarelal ji started becoming active in Majdoor Samachar.
After Gedore Company factories in India were transferred to their collaborators in India in 1987, the name was changed to Jhalani Tools Company and by 1996, fourteen months wages of workers were outstanding. Workers saw & experienced that nothing was achieved in practice by following the provisions of law & constitution. In this scenario, Gedore-Jhalani Tools worker comrades adopted a new path: taking their issues amongst workers in thousands of factories. At the time of shift change in factories, writing their issues in large alphabet on cardboard pieces and holding them, workers in teams of a dozen or so, stood along roads for a half kilometre or so. Jhalani management and union (CPM’s CITU) adopted various tactics to stop these placard workers. Working in shifts in the factory, Saathi Pyarelal brushed aside the threats and was active in the teams taking their issues to other factories workers standing beside the roads. Coming under pressure, the Haryana government intervened and payment of Jhalani Tools workers was started. But in these factories the situation went from bad worse.
In this scenario, in 2000 Saathi Pyarelal was amongst the workers actively demanding the wind-up of Jhalani Tools company by the B.I.F.R. (Board for Industrial Finance and Reconstruction set up under the SICA act to revive sick companies). [Gedore-Jhalani Company workers activities from 1982 have been a part of Majdoor Samachar.] Production in the factories at stand still and after the wind-up order of B.I.F.R., the matter went to Delhi High Court. Pyarelal ji went back to his village in Pratapgarh district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Five copies of Majdoor Samachar by post to him. A few years ago Saathi Pyarelal died in his village. And, Pyarelal ji’s son Rahul is today’s global wageworker.
Two friends had come to receive me at Bandra Station. For more than twenty years they had been living in Mumbai. Both are tailors and were at that time working in different places.
We took a bus to the Dharavi Bus Depot. Construction work was taking place in a portion of the wide link road and a number of twenty storey buildings were visible. Friends informed me that the towers were built in place of shanties in Dharavi. After a short walk, we entered the locality and moved towards the friends residence: very narrow streets with many thin leaking water pipes. To pass by another person, put the legs on the pipes. When we turned in the street, at midday, it was dark. It was a dead end street and the friends residence was at the end. One friend is the house owner and the other his tenant. A narrow ladder and we reached the upper room. It seemed to be six by six and a half feet… In comparison to residences in Autopin Jhuggies (shanties) — a kilometre long strip between a line of factories and open drain, three rows of shanties look like a star locality! Staying in those rooms in itself seemed tiring to me. There is talk of a tower coming up in the residence owner friend’s area and he hopes that he will also get a flat in that building.
The owner friend’s family has gone to his village in eastern Uttar Pradesh so he has given his room on rent. He and his son who has come from the village to learn computer operation stay with the tenant tailor friend in the upper room. In the conversations, a courier company worker and a building colouring/painting worker participated.
A tailor friend had gone to work on Sunday too and would meet us on being relieved at 1:30pm. Despite being very busy, another friend doing life insurance work and doubling up as a bank cash van gunman hired through a contractor company, Mumbai Security Force was attempting to meet us. After conversations in the room, we met the two friends.
1982-90: Mumbai, the city of factories was transformed by the Sahebs into a factory-free city. Then wage workers doing other jobs filled up Mumbai. Tailor friends work in fabrication units employing a dozen workers in residential areas. As per the market demand situation, after a few months they go from one place to another. Hence Rahul had also worked at many places in Mumbai… I have to travel to distant Kanjur Marg Station to meet another of his friends.
The tailor friends have become well acquainted with Mumbai. For the return journey they put me in a bus to Dindoshi Bus Depot. Wide roads… Metro construction work… Expressway, flyovers… The bus covered the distance in just forty five minutes. A fifteen minute walk took me to a friend’s place where I am staying.
*** Meeting workers in Chennai, June 2023
A few sketches:
1.
Kannan, 47 years old. Engineering degree.
Kannan’s father, uncle, and elder brother were followers of E.V. Ramasami Naickar. His father was a state government employee, his uncle devoted to the Dravid Kazhagam activities, and his brother was a central government employee.
In school and college in Chennai, Kannan participated in Dravid Kazhagam activities.
With his degree in plastic engineering, in 1999 Kannan started working for ₹8,000 in a tool room making moulds. Then through an agent, in 2001 Kannan went to Singapore on a two years contract.
Foreign workers had to pay a levy to Singapore government. In 2001, Kannan’s monthly wage was ₹30,000. Then there was 4 hours over time every day for which payment was one and a half times of the wage. And then, 8 hours over time on every Sunday for which payment was at double the rate. In a month, ₹1,00,000.
On meeting another Tamilian in Singapore, one did not enquire about his well being, instead the first question used to be: “How many hours over time last month?”
Kannan worked for five years in Singapore. He returned to India in 2007 and joined another Singapore company in Chennai for monthly payment of ₹18,000. Then in 2009, Kannan joined a Korean company in Sriperumbudur for ₹25,000 a month. In both these companies, Kannan was in Assembly Line Support and at times had to stay continuously for three days in the factory.
In 2010, Kannan joined Ashok Leyland Corporate Office, Guindy, Chennai at ₹60,000 a month. The factory was 15 Km away at Ennore. After two years, to start own business, he left the job.
In 2012, Kannan bought a building in T. Nagar and started a hostel. Today he operates four hostels, one for women and three for men. Three of the hostel buildings have been taken on rent.
It was to help the Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka in 2009 that Kannan came in contact with different organisations in Chennai. He joined one and is still active in that organisation.
2.
Abul. 45 years old. Tailor to gold jewelry worker.
Tailoring was Abul’s family occupation in Kolkata. He became a skilled tailor. He also went places selling the clothes.
Readymade clothes in the local markets… increasingly difficulties for tailors. Quarrels increased in the family. Abul, without informing anyone in the family, took a train to Mumbai in 2002.
In Mumbai, Abul joined a friend in a jewelry making shop in Mumbai. Learned while working. There were 10-15 workers and it was job work as per orders from clients. The shop was also the residence. Street food for meals. Monthly payment was ₹1,500 and it was ₹7,000 after ten years when Abul left work. In 2012 it was lack of work that had made him leave the shop.
Through a friend, Abul got a job in Rajkot. It was big with a hundred workers and gold jewelry orders were in kilograms. Monthly payment was ₹15,000. He worked there for two and a half years and his payment was ₹18,000 when lack of work forced him to resign.
Market down!
Abul got work in Mathura but left soon as tobacco chewing was not allowed at the workplace there.
Through an agent, Abul got a job at Thrissur in Kerala, monthly payment ₹25,000. Jungle, four workers in a room, miserable… Abul was seen crying on the CCTV. He was paid for his week’s work.
Abul went back to Kolkata. Started work as a tailor in his brother’s factory. It was piece rate work: ₹50 for a dozen piece. Made ten dozen in a day while his brothers made 15 dozen…
After three years, Abul was back in Mumbai. Small jewelry shop. For 15 days he worked in Reliance’s Geetanjali Jewelry at ₹120 per hour with 250 workers…
In 2018, Abul reached Chennai. He started working in a jewelry shop with 25-30 Tamil workers at ₹13,000 a month. Food plus residence provided. And, ₹1000 yearly increment.
Covid-19 lock down in March 2020. Abul went back to Kolkata.
Now, Abul is in Chennai in a jewelry shop operated by a person from his village. He works with eight workers, all from his village. Monthly payment is ₹20,000 plus residence but no food. Abul makes another ₹20,000 by working efficiently and for longer hours…
3.
Ramani. Revolutionary activist.
Ramani was born in a village in Dharampuri district of Tamil Nadu. Her family had become farm workers. Dharampuri was the epicenter of rural poors’ 1967 revolt in Tamil Nadu. Ramani’s uncle became active in the struggles of the rural poor.
After completing school, in 2000 Ramani joined the revolutionary movement in the area.
A meeting of forty or so was attacked by the police and Special Task Force on 24 November 2002. Siva (Parthiban) died in the police firing and 22 (5 females and 17 males) were arrested. Ramani was arrested the next day.
An FIR under sections of the IPC was registered and the arrested sent to jail. After three months, POTA (Prevention Of Terrorism Act) was imposed on 30 (2 juvenile, 6 women, and 22 men). The juvenile were released after a year. Twenty years on, the case of 28 is still going on in the POTA Special Court near Chennai.
After two and a half years, in 2005 the six female prisoners were given bail.
After coming out of jail, Ramani focused on the bail of their male comrades. The twenty two men got bail in 2007.
After coming out of jail, Ramani also worked for the release of old and ill women prisoners in Tamil Nadu jails.
In 2007, Ramani came to Chennai and started working in the Karl Marx Library…
S.S. Kannan, B. Tech. (Electrical Engineering) from I.I.T. Kanpur worked in north India. He was a sympathiser of CPI, CPM, CPI (M-L). He collected books and after retirement settled in Chennai.
S.S. Kannan set up a library in his house with ten thousand books. With his wife he worked amongst the blind. Books in Braille in the library.
In 2014, S.S. Kannan handed the library to Ramani’s organisation. At the age of 97, S. S. Kannan died in 2019. He published his autobiography in English, “Life History of Kannan”.
Ramani is in the Karl Marx Library committee.
There were 1200 workers in the three plants of Greaves Cotton company in Tiruvallur district. In 2014, there was a ten day stoppage of work by the workers against the retrenchment of 300 workers. Ramani was active there.
Ramani is at ease in reading and writing in Tamil. She has been in the editorial boards of Deshimunnani (National Front) and Makkal Viduthalai (People’s Liberation).
From 2017, Ramani is in the editorial board of Makkal Munnani (Peoples’ Front).
It seems that he social situation in Dharampuri area has drastically changed over these fifty years. The rural poor have gone to work in Bengaluru in large numbers.
A correction: S.S. Kannan was not in iit… he was in Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in late 1930s and early 1940s.
4.
Arun. 32 years old. IT worker activist.
Arun was born in Chennai. His father died when he was in school.
Work and study from 2009, Arun completed BCA in 2010.
Arun joined the IT Department of an appliances company. His monthly payment was ₹4500.
2009 onwards, Arun was affected by the plight of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka. In 2012 he decided to leave his job and join a revolutionary organisation. Arun’s elder brother and mother gave their consent.
Arun’s brother was a member of Vaiko’s party, an electoral party in Tamil Nadu. In 2013 he died of TB. Then in 2014, Arun’s mother died.
In 2015, Arun joined Dell India Pvt. Ltd. in Chennai as an IT worker for monthly payment of ₹16,500.
In 2018, Arun again left his job and joined another revolutionary organisation. He remained in that organisation till early-2020.
Arun then joined his present organisation.
In July 2020, Arun joined an IT service provider for ₹25,000. At present his monthly payment is ₹40,000. Office is 4:50 km from his rented room. He uses a bike. Duty is from 10:15 to 19:45.
After work, Arun comes to the organisation office. A number of IT workers are with the organisation.
Arun participates in seminars, discussions, and protests of the organisation.
5.
Sriram. 40 years old. B. E. (Mechanical). Works in an architecture company in Chennai.
After completing his engineering education, Sriram went to Mumbai and worked there.
Sriram came back to Chennai.
In the backdrop of the intensifying conflict in Sri Lanka in 2009, in Tamil Nadu a “Save Tamils” movement grew. Young people were active in that. Sriram was one of them.
Sriram joined an organisation. Socialist Workers Centre is a part of it. Sriram is very active in the Centre. After work, he regularly comes to the organisation office and takes up Socialist Workers Centre activities.
In 2014-15 TCS company announced its plan to layoff 10,000 workers. Many IT workers who had been active in the Save Tamils movement reconstituted themselves into FITE (Forum for IT Employees). Sriram and his organisation were at the centre of FITE in organising protests of IT workers in Tamil Nadu. FITE transcended Tamil Nadu: spread in Bengaluru, Mumbai, was going global. TCS company was forced to take back its large scale layoff plan. And a split in the organisation… FITE became dysfunctional…
Sriram is deeply involved with sanitary workers. In this context, some information from Sriram:
100,000 sanitary workers in Tamil Nadu. Twenty percent are permanent and eighty percent are temporary, by and large hired through contractor companies, of whom significant numbers are dummy companies.
A Tamil Nadu government circular: On retirement of 14 types of workers in municipalities and corporations, no workers will be hired by these bodies and the work will be outsourced.
In Chennai, the daily wage of a sweeper is ₹424… So, the government of Tamil Nadu has a scheme: “The government will give loan to workers to do some side business besides sanitary work.”
6.
Satish. 39 years old. Activist.
Satish was born on the outskirts of Salem. His father was a mine worker.
In the magnesite mines in Karuppur, Salem district in Tamil Nadu in 1960-70 there were 20,000 workers. The mines were operated by contractor companies. After mechanisation, there are 500 workers now.
Satish’s father went from CPI to CPM to CPI (M-L) and in 1970 spent some months in jail. For family expenses, Satish’s mother managed a small shop.
Satish’s elder brother joined a revolutionary organisation in the area.
Satish studied in a government school. He was more interested in social issues than in studies.
Just out of school and Satish joined a revolutionary organisation in 2001.
Satish was in the meeting that was attacked by the police and Special Task Force on 24 November 2002. He was amongst the arrested.
Satish was in jail for five years. He got bail in 2007. The case is still going on in the POTA Special Court.
Out of jail, Satish is involved in fishermen’s issues in Thanjavur. He does his organisation’s works in Chennai also.
7.
Sundermurthy. From Dharampuri in Tamil Nadu. Revolutionary.
In 1991, under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), Sundermurthy was given five life sentences. He was in jail from 1992.
And, Sundermurthy was implicated in the 2002 Dharampuri case also.
After spending 15 years in jail, Sundermurthy is out on bail from 2007.
Sundermurthy is amongst the 28 women and men whose 2002 case is still on in the POTA Special Court near Chennai.
*** Bengal, November 2023
I was in a different world during the first leg of my journey. In Durgapur, I lived from the afternoon of 2nd to the morning of 8th November in an eighteen month old toddler’s world. His walk was a run. He would suddenly stop and seem to be engrossed in thought. Repeat an activity half a dozen times. Then he would suddenly walk-run. Fall. Namesake cry. Start his walk-run. Long distance. Long time on the swing. With a little difficulty, bring him home. Leave him alone and he plays alone. Morning to night he did not seem to get tired. It was other worldly… Amongst the best days of my life.
I was in Durgapur in 1987.
Soumen Upadhyay was the son of an engineer in Durgapur Steel Plant.
School student Soumen left home and joined the insurgency following the Naxalbari incident. Spent time in jail. Back home.
Soumen was working in the Punjab National Bank when I met him. A very polite and helpful person,
Soumen took me to Kishan Chatterjee’s village in Birbhum district.
Soumen took me to Vishnupur in Bankura district to meet Benoy Sarkar.
Soumen’s family was very respectful and loving.
This time I could not find Soumen…
I was visiting Kolkata after thirty years. I was not able to contact any of the old friends.
On the 8th evening, a new friend, Nizam took me to his rented flat.
On the 9th evening, I met Gautam, Sujoy, and Anubhav for a preliminary interaction.
A friend in Delhi had suggested that I meet Prabhas ji in Malda.
Nizam booked my ticket in a night bus to Malda.
Early morning of 11th, from the bus stop Prabhas ji took me to his house.
Pintoo Da, Jagannath ji, Gautam ji came to Prabhas ji’s house for interactions. They shared their lifetime experiences.
At Jagannath ji’s suggestion, on the 12th early morning, Prabhas ji walked with me to the bus stop.
I reached Galgaliya, at a trijunction of Bihar, Nepal, and West Bengal. In his late sixties Moni Mohan Singha, with young Krishna, was waiting for me. The three of us, on a bike, reached Moni ji’s house in Chakkarmari, Darjeeling district in ten minutes.
With a lot of details but in fragments, Moni ji narrated his departure from his variety of Marxism-Leninism in 1986. The vast number and variety of books he has read. The final conclusion he has reached…
I was back in Malda on 13 November evening and Prabhas ji came to the bus stop.
In the meantime, Anita ji had come back after meeting her grandchildren at Patna. She made the house much more pleasant.
On 15 November, Prabhas ji and I walked some distance to the bus stand for the night bus to Kolkata. We reached early and had an at ease conversation.
The bus was late. More than an hour late. The bus arrived at 10 pm. Prabhas ji then left for home.
On 17 November, I met Manab ji who seemed to be in his early sixties.
Manab ji had left his engineering degree course in Jadavapur University. He chose a clerical job in the Life Insurance Corporation of India so that he could pursue revolutionary activities amongst factory workers.
In an at ease conversation, Manab ji presented an overview of the old industrial areas and the new industrial areas post-1990 in West Bengal.
After meeting Manab ji, I met Tathagata.
In 2015, Tathagata completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy from JNU New Delhi. He has been looking for a regular job. He does part time teaching and translates poems from Bangla to English.
Tathagata has distanced himself from the CPI M-L Liberation after it joined the I.N.D.I.A. alliance.
On 18 November, early in the morning I left for Shyam Nagar.
On the way were Titagarh and Barrackpore industrial areas.
Surender ji, a transport company worker came to the railway station and took me to his residence, a Dunbar Cotton Mill worker quarter.
Brahmdev ji, son of a Dunbar Cotton Mill worker, came there.
We went to a beautiful place adjacent to the Hooghly-Bhagirathi river. At ease conversations.
Brahmdev ji’s grandfather had come from Bihar to Kolkata and worked as a mason.
Brahmdev ji’s father came to Kolkata in 1955 and after working as a mason for a few years, he joined the Spinning Department of Dunbar Cotton Mill in 1960.
In 1986, workers sat idle during their working hours in the Mill. They were paid their wages.
In 1987, the factory was locked.
Case still going on in the Kolkata High Court.
Brahmdev ji’s father received ₹41, 000 as his legal dues in 2004. Many workers went back to their village. Many workers have died. And, some workers who are alive are still waiting for their legal dues.
There were 5000+ workers in the Mill. 450 quarters for workers.
After passing class ten examination, Brahmdev ji started tuition and teaching primary class students in 1986-87. He is still at it.
In 1999, Naval ji, a jute mill worker in Katihaar, Bihar came to Shyam Nagar. The Mill he was working in had shut down.
Naval ji started working in jute mills in Kolkata. He became a neighbour of Brahmdev ji in the Dunbar Cotton Mill worker quarters.
Naval ji was a member of the RSPI (M-L), an anti-Trotsky, anti-Stalin, anti-Mao organisation. Brahmdev ji became a member of the party and continues to be.
Surender ji’s father was a government employee and his uncles were workers in Durgapur Steel Plant.
From his village in Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh, Surender was sent to his uncles in Durgapur.
After class ten in 1994, Surender ji joined his father. They stayed in Shyam Nagar Dunbar Mill worker quarters.
Surender went to college. Graduated in 1999.
Back to village in 2000. Married. Stayed in the village.
Mr. G.D. Singh, a Maoist from Punjab had made Benares and the surrounding rural areas the focus of his activities. He had established a Forum Against Capitalism-Imperialism.
Surender ji was influenced by the Forum. He became a member of the Forum. Having become acquainted with Marxist literature, he immersed himself in their study.
The organisation did not survive Mr. G. D. Singh’s death. But Surender ji continues to spread his ideas via Facebook and UTube.
In 2007, Surender ji went to Nasik in Maharashtra where some people from his village were working in factories. He worked as a temporary worker in sheet metal factories. Wage ₹150 per day.
On his father’s death in 2009, Surender ji came back to Shyam Nagar, Kolkata.
Joined a transport company, monthly payment ₹3000. Online payments and the Covid lockdown have increased transport workers difficulties. His monthly payment now is ₹9000.
Surender ji’s wife stitches women’s clothes in the quarter. He helps her. His son has completed Industrial Training Institute course and his daughter is in class eleven.
The family is in the village following the death of his father-in-law.
Surender ji cooked our lunch.
Long day. On return, at Tollygunj metro station, I decided to have a cup of tea. Very good tea. Had another cup.
A conversation with a person quietly sitting on the bench commenced. He could converse in Hindi.
When informed that I was not on some religious journey… I was coming from Faridabad and involved in a factory workers paper, he opened up.
The friend’s father was a railway worker. The family was living in a railway colony in Kolkata at the time of the 1974 railway strike.
Paramilitary forces used to raid railway colonies and beat, arrest workers.
During the strike, the friend’s father had left the colony and stayed in different places in Kolkata. The family continued to stay in the railway colony. The raids on the colony that he was witness to as a young boy seemed to be deeply imprinted in his memory.
After completing his polytechnic diploma, the friend joined the Engineering Department of the Railways in 1983 as a draftsman.
He retired in 2021.
He had come from Shyam Nagar area to meet his son. He got up, said goodbye and left…
I heard a call from the tea shop, “I have paid for your tea.” And before I could respond, he was out of sight.
On 19 November, I met Koyel, Pratik, and Debarun. They are in their late twenties, early thirties.
Interaction at a tea shop near Tollygunj metro station. Crowded. It took me some time to be at ease with Pratik. Instead of half an hour, Koyel stayed on for almost two hours.
After Koyel had left, for a quiet place to converse, the three of us went to Ravindra Sarovar. Found the Sarovar locked due to the last day of the festivities of Bihar’s main festival, Chhat.
Lunch in a 1915 restaurant.
We went to the riverfront where a friend knew of a nice secluded place. On the way, we passed Kumar Toli, where gods and goddesses are are sculpted in clay in workshops and homes. A tourist spot.
The riverfront was crowded over more than a mile. Mini trucks with people and paraphernalia for immersion were still pouring in.
Very loud music.
Young girls and boys dancing.
The elders were following the rituals to the dot.
Lord Shiv’s baaraat.
Marriage party of ghosts and demons.
Carnival.
It seems that the Chhat festival is an expression of there being hardly any difference in hierarchical social organisations whether one is or one is not.
This seems to be similar to the extravaganza of Durga Puja associated with Bengal.
And Holi.
It was only after we left the riverfront and friends chose the streets that we had some peace at a tea shop.
Nizam had been articulating his experiences and their readings.
On 20 November, Debarun picked me up from Tollygunj metro station and we went to the Howrah station.
Debarun made it so simple and comfortable to the station and the platform.
The train left the station on time, 9:55pm.
Thank you Nizam, Gautam, Sujoy, Anubhav, Prabhas, Pintoo Da, Jagannath, Gautam, Moni Mohan, Krishan, Anita, Manab, Tathagata, Koyel, Pratik, Debarun.
*** Conversation with a transport worker in Pune, end of 2023
A brief interaction with a transport worker in Pune.
Young worker: “I was born in 1992 in village Bisawu, district Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. It is a big village. I completed school, graduation, diploma in electrical engineering in the village itself. On completion of education, I got married in 2014.
“My father used to come to the village after two years for two to three months. For my sister and me he was a stranger. It was my grandfather who stayed with us in the village. We were attached to him. He died in 2017.
“My grandfather had four daughters and four sons. We had a small piece of land for cultivation. So my grandfather had gone to work in the Gulf.
“My father was the eldest son. After working for fifteen years in Qatar & Dubai, he worked for twenty five years in Saudi Arabia. After working for forty years in the Gulf, from 2014 he has been in the village.
“My two uncles frequently go to the Gulf to work.
“My third uncle grows vegetables in the village.
“After marriage, I went to the Gulf and worked as a construction worker for four years. After coming back from the Gulf, I am working as a transport worker in Pune.
“The elder son of an uncle has been working for fifteen years in the Gulf. The younger one is a transport worker in Pune.
“Going to the Gulf from our village is like going to the agricultural fields in our village. Sixty to seventy percent of men in the village work outside India. Most of them are in the Gulf. Many work in Italy and Canada. Students must have gone to the US also. My uncle is working in Africa.”
*** Mumbai, December 2023
Empty Twenty Litre Bottle
23:15, December 9. It was the third day of problematic water supply in the building.
“Urgent work”— Sunday is also a working day… Necessity of a twenty litre bottle of RO water.
Ranjana, daughter of a railway worker friend, has been working in Mumbai for two years. She had to spend a few years overcoming social constraints to leave Uttar Pradesh and work on her own in Mumbai. After working in some IT companies, she is now working as a civil engineer with a vendor in a construction company.
“Want to go for a walk?” I went along with her.
Bottles of water sold out in two shops. Available on the third shop. Mumbai is overflowing with various types of shops and shopkeepers…
A bottle in ₹50. Online payment. The shopkeeper did not allow the bottle to be taken away— an empty bottle had not been brought. “Taking it to the building next door” — the shopkeeper refused.
I was mortgaged for an empty bottle.
The shopkeeper, Ranjana, and a young man preparing for administrative services examination who had come to help, conversed in Marathi language.
When I was left alone with the shopkeeper, I came to know that like Ranjana, he was also from Uttar Pradesh.
The shopkeeper was from Benares. In conversation, he said: “18 empty bottles had not come back… no faith in anyone…
“My grandfather was a milkman in Santa Cruz, Bombay. My father was also a milkman. Fear no one. We are five brothers and we take costly ITC cigarettes from Wholesalers to supply in the whole city… I am spending my earnings on the education of my two sons.
“My wife looks after the shop in the morning. After college, my sons keep the shop… they learn. They will not become loiterers… I am 48 years old and I have heart problems, hospitalised thrice…
“20:30 onwards, I look after the shop… (Phone call, “Coming. It is getting late, you all take your dinner…”)
“They are taking a lot of time…”
Ranjana and the young aspirant returned with an empty bottle…
The two: “We had to mortgage Uncle ji for an empty bottle!”
*** Conversation with a port worker in Mumbai, December 2023
On 10 December, a JNPT-Nhava Sheva Port worker from Navi Mumbai came to Diva and we had a good interaction.
On 14 December, a friend took me to Navi Mumbai to meet the port worker:
From the CST Mumbai station, we took a bus to the Gateway of India for a ferry to the Navi Mumbai port. But the ferry service to the port from there was suspended for three days. The state in India had organised an exhibition of its naval power.
And the tourist spot: the Gateway of India monument, built to preserve the memory of the King of England’s visit to his subjects in the Indian subcontinent, was undergoing major maintenance.
We had to go to Bhau Cha Dhakka for the ferry service.
An hour’s journey in the ferry to the Navi Mumbai port: we passed by the oil unloading terminal and the container loading-unloading terminal.
A port bus ride. Trucks loaded with containers. Lots of open spaces.
Lots of construction activities in the port, which has been operational from 1989. Flyovers and widening of roads all-around. An ongoing $131million project that began in January 2023.
From the bus drop point, we took an auto to the friend’s residence, a few miles away. With wife and two sons, he lives in a rented room in a former village.
We were late. The family had prepared lunch, we had dinner… We returned to Diva around 11pm.
New Mumbai Port worker: ” I was born in 1983 in a village in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh. Agriculture. Studied in the village school.
” After the class 10 examination, in 1999 I reached Mumbai. A cousin was working in the Navi Mumbai port. For me, he obtained the job of a maintenance supervisor at a monthly payment of ₹3000 in Diwanchand and Ramsaran Pvt. Ltd company. The monthly payment of maintenance workers I was to supervise was ₹6000-8000.
” I stayed with my cousin. We cooked our meals in the rented room.
” My father fell ill and after four months I had to go back to the village. I came back and rejoined in December 2000. In the meantime, my cousin had brought his wife from the village. I stayed with them.
” There were 35 Kalmar loading machines in the company. The 70 drivers had 24 hour shifts: 24 hours work and 24 hours rest. I began learning about Kalmar machine maintenance.
” One day in 2001, still a supervisor, I had climbed the Kalmar machine. I fell down from forty feet high. Head injury. Bone broken. A major operation in KM Hospital, Mumbai. Discharged after 15 days and the treatment continued for four months.
” All the running around was done by my cousin. It was his cooperation that saved me. He is still working in the port and lives with his family at a short distance.
” The machine maintenance workers had Employees State Insurance but I did not have it. The company paid for my treatment and also my wage for the treatment period.
” Accidents in the port are a routine.
” After learning, about Kalmar machine maintenance work, in 2003 I joined a company that did only maintenance of Kalmar machines. Monthly payment ₹8000. There were 15 of us and most of us were in the general shift, 10 to 6. After 5 years, when I left for higher wages, my wage was ₹12000.
” In 2008, I joined Keshbo Logistics Pvt. Ltd. at a monthly payment of ₹14000. There were only two Kalmar machines and we were six maintenance workers. The company had a hundred trucks moving between the port and the yard. Truck drivers had two 12 hour shifts. There were fifteen truck maintenance workers. They had a separate workshop.
” The company shut down in 2018. The legal dues of the workers were not paid. Instead of ₹300, 000 due, I was paid only ₹70, 000.
” I had accumulated some money and planned to start a milk dairy… Corona-19 lockdown in March 2020. Longdrawn lockdown. We had to stay in the rented room. The accumulated money was spent.
” In December 2021, I took up the job of a Kalmar machines maintenance worker in the shipyard. Monthly payment of ₹25, 000. Now I am getting ₹27, 500.
” I had brought my wife from the village to Mumbai in 2003. Rent of a separate room, ₹600. First son was born in 2004 and the second in 2008. Changed room in 2008, new rent ₹1400. Now the rent of that room is ₹3000 + ₹500 for electricity etc.
” I have spent on my sons education. English medium school with a school bus at a distance of five kilometres. After leaving school in 2019, my elder son is in the final year of Bachelor of Computer Applications degree course in a college thirty kilometre away. My younger son is in class 9 in school. “
Industrial Areas & Multistorey Industrial Slums.
Diva & Mahape in the Thane-Navi Mumbai Industrial Complex
On 2 December early morning, I travelled from Pune to Kalyan. From Kalyan station, a young worker took me in a local train to her one room flat in Diva.
Diva station to Diva “village”: there were six-eight to twenty-twenty two storey buildings all-around.
In my forty year stay in the capital region of the state in India, and regular travels in industrial areas therein, I have never experienced such a concentration of human beings.
Besides the multistorey buildings, there was an overflow of shops & footpath shops.
Multitude of three wheelers for shared travel.
No parks to sit.
No open spaces for a walk.
Boxes in multistorey buildings and a crowded outside…
On 11 December, I found an “alternative”: Platform Number 5 at Diva station… Local, long distance, and goods trains… High pitch announcements were of course there. Still the low frequency of passenger trains from Platform 5 was a relief.
On 12 December, I had just reached Platform 5 when the young worker I was staying with called from her workplace. She had forgotten her spectacles in the flat.
After working as an IT worker in Mumbai for two years, she had been able to get work as a civil engineer at a construction site.
Immediately I returned to our residence. With her eyeglasses, I took a bus to the Mahape Industrial Area built by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.
Hills. Huge pipes lying on both sides of the road to be installed to ease the water shortage. Flyovers and under construction flyovers. Widening of roads. Trucks loaded with containers.
With twelve industrial areas, Thane is the third most industrialised district in Maharashtra state.
Half an hour bus ride, 15 kilometer distance and I reached the L&T bus stop in Mahape. The friend took me to a tea shop in the industrial area.
I took a look around the Mahape Industrial Area. Functional IT and other factories. And ongoing construction… Strange looking buildings being built: they were storage sites of global companies, they were data centres…
Cemented roads. Widening of roads…
A security guard: “Two twelve hours shifts. No weekly day off. No festival holiday. Twelve hours duty each day at a monthly payment of ₹20, 000.”
Construction companies outsourcing work… Petty contractors at the lower-end. All-round violation of all laws at construction sites seems to be a norm in Maharashtra state as well.
Around 4pm, the friend asked me to leave to avoid the rush during shift change hours.
I reached the bus stop and inquired about a bus to Diva… A young man with a helmet on came. Confirmed what he had overheard. A comfortable ride on his scooter to Diva. His name was Rajan. He was from Benares in Uttar Pradesh. He was staying in Diva. And working in the Mahape industrial area.
Ishwardeep… 22:30, 17 December 2023. Ahmedabad railway station. Ishwardeep in the front seat with Bijay and with Sagardeep Dhillon, I was in the back seat.
Twenty years… Mahender Pal in a bus from Hisar to Chandigarh. In the moving bus, Mahender Pal would suddenly stand up. It was with the help of a co-passenger that we had reached Chandigarh.
A week in the house of Sagardeep Dhillon and Bijay in Gandhinagar. I have seen and met a few special children… A glimpse of the world of special children…
Last night, sitting beside Ishwardeep, I watched this video on my mobile phone. Courtesy Ishwardeep, I watched it repeatedly…
*** Ahmedabad, December 2023
On 24 December, I met a worker in Ahmedabad. For two and a half years, he had worked in LaMed Health Care, Lakhani Footwear, Shahi Garments, Hindustan Syringe & Medical Devices factories in Faridabad.
The young worker lives in a rented room with four relatives. He had come back after a twelve hour night shift. In the conversations, 82 year old Kamal Singh ji cropped up.
Kamal Singh had been a worker in Vijay Mill in Ahmedabad. In the final stage of his life, at this time he is in his far away village in the hills.
Son of a peasant, in 1960 Kamal Singh had come over to Ahmedabad where his brother-in-law was a factory worker. He got Kamal Singh a job with himself in Vijay Mill.
In 1986, Vijay Mill shut down. The court cases of creditors for their dues have not been finalised till December 2023.
In the context of the textile industry in India, Ahmedabad was second only to Mumbai. And like Mumbai, in these thirty-forty years, Ahmedabad is a city without textile mills. Real estate, multistorey buildings, towers on factory lands…
In 1929, Vijay Mill was established on a fifty acre plot of land on Naroda Road, Ahmedabad. It was a composite textile Mill: it had Spinning, Weaving, Processing, Printing & Dyeing departments. Composite textile mills had eight to ten thousand workers. Vijay Mill was a significant factory.
As per law, after the shut down of the factory, the issue of payments to the creditors of Vijay Mill reached the Gujrat High Court. And after thirty seven years, the case is still in the High Court…
As per law, on shut down of a factory, the Liquidator office of the High Court auctions the property of the company and pays the creditors. Such due process is still underway in Gujarat High Court in the case of Vijay Mill.
To pay the dues of the banks and workers, the Liquidator office began auctions of the fifty acre (two hundred thousand square meters) land of Vijay Mill…
The Liquidator office had calculated the dues of 2,618 workers of Vijay Mill to be ₹333 million 136 thousand and 651. After a payment of ₹118 million 155 thousand and 780, the Liquidator office sought permission of the High Court to sell 27 thousand 129 square meters of Vijay Mill land for ₹5 billion to pay off the banks and the workers.
Intervention of the Gujarat government: opposition to the sale of the land, claiming that it belonged to Gujarat government. Court hearings. After thirty years, the High Court decided: the land belongs to the Gujarat government.
Workers of Vijay Mill, shut down in 1986, have not received their dues till December 2023. Eighty two year old Kamal Singh is one of these workers.
A few photos of a worker residence in Ahmedabad, now a city without its textile mills
At 9 in the morning on 27 December, my friend dropped me at Ahmedabad railway station. Instead of 09:40, the train arrived at 11:20 and reached Surat at 17:15 instead of 13:25. A 47 year old friend working in a dyeing & printing factory was waiting at the station. Half an hour bus ride to his rented room in the Pandesara industrial area. Lemon tea…
24 December night, I had stayed with worker friends in Ahmedabad in their rented room.
A clean, well arranged room. Space for a kitchen. Outside the room, common space for cleaning & washing.
In the room: A student of class eight. Her maternal grandma. Two men working in twelve hour shifts. A young woman looking after the room and…And: From 8am to 8pm a stream of class 1-2 to high school boys & girls preparing for board examination. ln the room, the young woman prepares the students for questions and answers in Gujrati, Hindi, and English!
After good conversational interactions on 24, on 25 December morning I took some photos!
On A Train
On 27 December, the train from Ahmedabad reached Surat at 17:15 instead of 13:25. Began listening to a factory worker friend’s detailed description of his factory life in Surat. The friend took 28 December also as a day off. He took me around Pandesara industrial area. He also completed the description of his factory life.
For departure to Mumbai on 29 December, on 28 December booked a ticket from an outsourced railway ticket booking centre. Name in waiting list. A three hour journey in the morning with a ticket on the waiting list was hardly a problem.
08:13 train from Karnavati Express. Many people on the waiting list in the compartment. Travelled standing up for three hours. Some conversational interactions with waiting list co-passengers.
A young couple on a fun trip: the lady was a doctor and the man was in a finance company. The lady spoke at ease in both Hindi and English. She was from Madhya Pradesh state and had her medical education in Russia. She is working in Surat. She was interested in history of places. She was pissed off by the business mode of treatment. She was one more doctor, one more medical worker highly critical of her profession. Before getting off the train at Borivali station, gave her a Majdoor Samachar booklet, “चिकित्सा, चिकित्सक,और चिकित्सालय मानव तन के अनुकूल हैं क्या? सारत: यह मन के फेर तो नहीं हैं कहीं?” [ Are medical treatment, doctor, and hospital in sync with the human body? Or, aren’t they, in essence, wanderlust? ]
A young man had been in a plastic business in Vapi for an year. His family from Uttar Pradesh, settled in Mumbai. Journey to meet his family. He did not have much information about the Vapi industrial area…
Another young man in a kurta-pajama provided a detailed account of the industrial scene in Vapi. From Uttar Pradesh, his father had travelled to Vapi in Gujarat looking for a job. A wage worker for many years, he had established a small chemical unit. The son was working with his father in the chemical unit. The young man was very polite in his expressions. Gave him Majdoor Samachar booklet regarding medical treatment.
At Vapi, a young lady entered the compartment. A few minutes after the train had left the station, she seemed to be in panic. On the phone… Would blurt about getting down when the train slowed down and co-passengers would intervene.
The young woman resides in Vapi. She works in a factory in Bhilad industrial area. In a hurry to reach her workplace, she had taken a super fast train that did not stop at Bhilad.
Her husband was also a factory worker. She seemed to be newly married. Despite the husband joking on the phone, her tension had been increasing from the moment she had come to know that the next stop of the train was Borivali in Mumbai.
The young woman had a bag that women factory workers carry. She was speaking in Hindi. She was from Uttar Pradesh…
No ticket. The train will stop in Mumbai!
She probably had ₹20 to 50 with her.
On inquiry, the chemical unit young man informed that the ticket from Borivali to Vapi cost ₹100. We would reach Borivali at 11:30 and a train from Borivali to Vapi was at 14:00. It was with great difficulty that the young worker accepted ₹100 for fare and ₹50 for snacks. To relax, gave her a copy of Majdoor Samachar publication in Hindi, [Imagining a Near Future In These Vibrant Times, a compilation of interactions on WhatsApp during the Covid-19 global lockdowns. ]
The chemical unit young man informed about the difficulties in boarding a train at Borivali. He said our train destination was Mumbai Central Station and it will start the return journey at 14:00. For a convenient journey, he made online payment and booked a confirmed seat from Mumbai Central for the young worker.
The young man’s name is Kumar.
Chirruping
First visit to Gujarat state. A two week stay in Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, and Surat.
Interactions with some special children, son of a shut down Ahmedabad textile mill worker, a global food factory worker, a five star hotel worker, a self-employed worker, friends who have been employed in extractions from the womb of the earth, a worker in a dyeing & printing factory… And, brief interactions with a few in their early & mid twenties.
Reached Mumbai on 29 December. Rest.
On 31 December 2023 morning, a technical worker took me to the Juhu beach in Mumbai. She has been working for two years.
The young worker made me take off my shoes and smiled when I put them in my bag. She dragged me into the water. Wet. And she made me eat vadaa-pao, a Mumbai dish.
The photograph shows a moment on 31 December morning.
It seems that we are in increasingly vibrant & pregnant times. This seems to be the time before the arrival of the new, where: Each sunrise has its chirruping… And each night has its soundlessness.
*** Conversation with Five-Star hotel workers in Ahmedabad, December 2023
Instead of learning workers’ languages, the bosses’ have made it necessary for workers’, be they factory or hotel workers, to have a working knowledge of English, the bosses’ language in the Subcontinent. This can be seen in a young worker’s narration in Hindi.
Young worker of a five star hotel in Ahmedabad: “A day off after working for 14-15 days. Twelve hours shift everyday.
“I came to Ahmedabad in 2016. I am interested in cooking. My first job here was in US Pizza in Shastri Nagar. There were four workers in the kitchen and six in service. ₹5000 my monthly payment. Space for 80-100 persons in the dining area. Hence a lot of workload. As per work, the payment was low. So after six months I left that job.
“I joined US Pizza in Science City. The dining area was for 50-60 persons. ₹5500 was monthly payment. The duty was from 0800 to 1400 hours and, after a break of 5 hours, worked from 1900 to 2300 hours. Ten hours work but no payment for overtime work. I worked there for 8-9 months. Ran the kitchen alone. No off days. I left the job after an outstanding payment of two months.
“I had joined a graduate course but left it after a year as work and study simultaneously was not feasible.
“In 2019, I joined an institution for a diploma in hotel management. Instead of the three years diploma, I did one year diploma.The fees for an year was ₹107,000. I did not take up any job, the focus was on the diploma.
“Covid-19 lockdown. I was alone in a room. In a free travel special train, with 1200 co-passengers, I went to my village.
“I returned to Ahmedabad in January 2021. Industrial training is compulsory for completion of the hotel management course. Each hotel has its package. One gives ₹5000 while another ₹1500. In every hotel a trainee is made to work 12-13 hours per day.
“In four months of industrial training, work for some days in a chair-table set up in the restaurant. Work some days to pick plates from tables after breakfast, lunch, dinner and take them to the dish washer. Day and night work for four months… a month in food and beverages.
“Then a month and a half in housekeeping. Work for 12-13 hours and 5 days offline a month… in practice 3 days off. During the busy period, continuous duty without any day off.
“In housekeeping, complete cleaning from room to washroom. Wet mopping and dry mopping in 28 rooms every day. Anything a guest asks for must be provided within ten minutes… Extra bed, extra pillow, extra bedsheet, water bottle, shaving kit, shampoo, conditioner, towel, tea, coffee, milk powder…
“Month and a half training in the kitchen. Vegetables to be taken from the receiving area to the commissary. Every hotel has a place with a temperature less than 5 degrees. Only fruits and vegetables are stored there.
“In the kitchen there are Indian, Continental, and Chinese departments. In Indian curry boiled potatoes, chopped onions, tomatoes, and garlic are kept ready.
“The three kitchens are side by side in line. From the restaurant, the complete kitchen is visible to guests. Every hotel has a live kitchen.
“There are two more kitchens invisible to the guests.
“In every hotel in Ahmedabad, industrial trainees have to work 12-13 hours a day. Trainees do not have employees statutory state insurance and provident fund. After four months, trainees have to get rating forms filled by each department in the hotel.
“After industrial training, 6 months of job training is necessary. I looked for a month for another hotel for this but did not find a vacancy anywhere. For job training also, I was back to the earlier hotel. Job training takes place only in one department.
“I chose the kitchen. In a five star hotel a job training certificate is certainly asked for kitchen work. I had chosen Indian curry. Only basics are taught. There are 14 kinds of gravy but usually we make only three types.
“1. Tomato red gravy. 60-80 litres are made at one time. 2. White gravy with cashew nuts and melon seeds. At one time, 40-50 litres was prepared. 3. Yellow gravy with onion alone. 50-60 litres was made at one time. 4. Chop spices with onion and tomato. At one time 30-40 litres were made.
“The vegetables are kept cut and boiled. So they can be served in 10-15 minutes. The vessels are big, -four are needed to lift them. Big gas stoves burn all the time.
“During job training the trainees are told that they have to work from 1100 to 2300 hours but in practice it is up to 2400 or 0030 hours that work has to be done.
“It is not possible to be serious while working in a kitchen. Bantering takes place all the time in kitchens.
“Job training was over in 2021 November-end. I went to my village for three weeks.
“On return to Ahmedabad, for two months I looked for a job. I stayed with my sister. In March 2022 I got my first hotel job. After deduction of state insurance and provident fund, monthly payment ₹12,500. Twelve hour shift, no payment for overtime work. After a year raise of ₹2000 only. Because of low payment, I left the job.
“I joined another hotel. Monthly payment after deductions ₹19,000. The hotel functions for 24 hours. Two twelve hour shifts. No payment for overtime work. Day shift is from 1100 to 2300 hours and the night shift from 2300 to 1100 hours.
“With room, breakfast is cheaper. Almost all guests have breakfast. Everyday breakfast for 250-300 has to be prepared.
“In the Indian kitchen, breakfast preparation work goes on the whole time in the night shift. All Indian dishes have to be prepared. Yesterday, 24 December breakfast for 285 guests was prepared and today breakfast for 345 was prepared. There is a shortage of workers in the kitchen.”
*** Food factory workers in Gandhinagar, December 2023
A conversation took place with a global food factory worker in Ahmedabad on 24 December 2023. He talked about Deepkiran Foods Private Limited Factory in Dantali Industrial Area, Gandhinagar:
In Deepkiran Foods factory, 3,500 workers prepare Khaman, Dhokla, Idli, Samosa, cut-boiled-frozen vegetables for the world market. Around three hundred staff members keep working on their respective computers.
Ten company buses from Ahmedabad take workers to Deepkiran Foods factory. Now the management deducts ₹ 400 per month from the salary for the bus service whereas earlier this bus service was free…
In 2018, the workers asked for a salary increase of ₹30 while the management agreed to increase it by ₹15 only. Production stopped in the factory! All the workers would reach duty on time and sit inside the factory. At the end of the shift, the workers would return to their respective residences.
Company bosses’ came from America. Aunty said: “Workers are right. Increase the money. Start the production. Don’t cut anyone’s salary. Make them work 12 hours instead of 8 hours. The loss incurred will be made up in fifteen days. Don’t cut anyone’s salary.”
Increase in salary by ₹30. Work started in the factory. But… food was free in the canteen and they started deducting ₹350 per month from salary. Bus service to the factory was free, the company started deducting ₹400 per month from the salary.
And, after a year, the company laid off more than a hundred workers one by one. Most of those fired were those workers who were on the company rolls. In their place, workers were hired through contractor companies.
Corona-19 lockdown. The factory remained closed for two whole months. Salaries paid to all the workers. After demonetisation, the salary is sent to the bank accounts of workers .
Most of the 3,500 workers of Deepkiran Foods factory are hired through contractor companies.
All workers are given the minimum wage of unskilled worker set by the Gujarat government — currently it is ₹473 for eight hours of work. A few artisans are on the company roll, their salary is Rs 20-25 thousand.
For the 100 cleaning workers in the factory there are two 12 hour shifts. Production workers have one shift, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Overtime depends on order. By the way, every year from August, there is duty from 7 am to 8 pm in Deepkiran Foods Factory. There is huge demand from America, Canada and Australia for Christmas and New Year. It takes 45 days to deliver a container by sea.
The law for payment of overtime is double the rate of payment but in Deepkiran factory they pay at a single rate.
There are supervisors to make the workers work and bouncers to scare them. 25-30 bouncers roam around the factory all the time. It is their job to make the workers’ “understand”…
*** Conversation with a textile worker in Surat, December 2023
Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu and Surat in Gujarat are the preeminent textile clusters in India.
In Surat there are two million workers in fifty thousand textile manufacturing units. Surat is a hub for synthetic fibres, especially sarees.
At ease conversations on 27 and 28 December 2023 with a printing & dyeing factory worker in an industrial area developed by the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC).
GIDC’s Pandesara Industrial Area is ten kilometres from Surat railway station. The train from Ahmedabad reached Surat five hours behind scheduled time. My friend received me at the station and took me to his residence.
The residence was an eight-foot by eight-foot room in two rows of 15 rooms. Families in some rooms and two-three individuals in other rooms. Common toilets. My friend shared a room with another worker who was on the night shift duty.
We conversed in the room on 27 December. My friend took another day off. We roamed & talked in the Pandesara Industrial Area, five kilometres from the residence.
Open drain. Stink. Black water. Water treatment plants are there in the factories. Municipal Corporation checks samples. The water goes to the sea… it goes through a government water treatment plant.
There are 250 thousand workers in the dyeing & printing factories in Pandesara. Big factories. Boiler in every factory. Coal. Smoke and coal dust everywhere.
The statutory minimum wages in Gujarat state from 1 October 2023 are:
Unskilled worker Zone -1 ₹11,752 per month (₹473 per day) and in Zone -2 ₹11,462 per month (₹462 per day)
Semi-skilled worker Zone -1 ₹11,986 per month (₹483) and in Zone -2 ₹11,986 per month (₹473 per day)
Skilled worker Zone -1 ₹12,324 per month (₹495 per day) and in Zone -2 ₹12,012 per month (₹483 per day)
For wage workers’ 8 hours work is statutory. Work after 8 hours is overtime work. The statutory overtime payment is at double the rate of normal payment all over India.
For wage workers’, weekly day off is statutory all over India.
Dyeing & Printing Factory Worker: “I have been working in Surat since 2000. All the time I have worked in Pandesara but for a short stint of 8-9 months in a factory in Surat City in 2005.
“My first job was as a begaari (unskilled worker) in a dyeing & printing factory’s Centre Machine department. Payment was ₹68 for 12 hours work. Day and night shifts.
“Across the drain there were three storey buildings for workers’ housing. Some workers stayed there until 2015. Empty for years now. To be demolished. It is said that GIDC has developed a workers’ colony three kilometres from the industrial area for families but a lot of nepotism is at play there.
“During 2000-20005, all around Pandesara Industrial Area was jungle. There were many rooms made of wood. Rent ₹250-300. Everyone had to go to the woods for the toilet. In 2004 my wife and children came to Surat. She found rooms made of wood strange to live in. The vegetables in the vegetable market were such as would be thrown away in the village. She stayed for ten months and did not come again. I stayed for eight years in rooms made of wood.
“And for 15 years now, I have been staying in this room.
“When only ₹2 raise was given after one and a half years, I left my first job in Surat.
“It was summer and there was a great shortage of workers. With boilers there, work in dyeing & printing factories is done in a very hot environment. It becomes unbearable during the summer and many workers leave for their villages.
“I got a job in another factory as a flaterman at ₹120 for 12 hours, whereas an operator’s payment was ₹115 at that time. In 2005, I lost that job when I came back after taking my family to the village.
“I got a job in Surat City at ₹100 for 12 hours. Left after nine months on getting work in Pandesara at ₹110. Left after a year for ₹120 in another dyeing & printing factory. I worked in that factory for six years at that payment. Then I joined another factory where I am still working.
“During the Covid-19 lockdown from 22 March 2020, all the workers in Pandesara Industrial Area stayed in the nearby areas. Trains for Bihar started on 20 May… Stampede. Touts took ₹1000 for a ticket, otherwise everything else was free. I left on 25 May.
“And, in the Pandesara Industrial Area, factories began reopening from 30 May… No workers available!
“Companies sent luxury buses to Bihar also to bring their workers!!
“We already had our food items. Then the government gave free rations. And companies also gave free rice, flour, mustard oil, refined oil, sugar, salt… For the first time vegetables were so cheap in Surat!
“Now for 12 hours duty in dyeing & printing factories in Pandesara begaari (unskilled worker) gets ₹400; flaterman, tailor, and chemical mixer ₹500; assistant operator ₹500-530; and operator ₹570-600. I am still a flaterman.
“Companies do not have any role here in shift change. Workers themselves change shift as per their convenience. But shifts are 12 hours each. When one arrives, the other leaves.
“45 million square metres of raw cloth per day is produced by a million workers on a piece rate payment basis in thousands of powerloom units in Surat] And more comes from powerloom units in Bhiwandi etc. In powerloom factories the shifts are from 7 to 7 whereas in dyeing & printing factories the shifts are from 9 to 9.
“In the Dyeing department in unfolding raw cloth, folding dyed cloth and packing it, there are more women workers than men. Women workers wages are higher than those of men. Women workers duty is from 0930 to 1830 at ₹350. Whereas men unskilled workers get ₹400 for work from 0900 to
2100.
“Women workers in Surat are increasing very rapidly. In computerised embroidery…
“In some mills in the dyeing department in these five years, women also work in day & night 12 hour shifts. There are no women workers in printing: wet colours, dress change…
“12 hours of work is compulsory but the money is just not sufficient for children’s education…
“My eldest daughter, recently married, is a postgraduate and the younger one is a graduate doing a computer course…
“It is more work that workers’ crave for! I returned from home in the first week of this month and by 27 December, I had already done 36 hours of duty twice! Three hours are given for sleep in 36 hours. On the first night at 2300 and the second day at 1100 hours, the company gives food. There is no overtime payment in twelve hours work and in thirty six hours continuous work. It is normal wages all the time.
“Every worker does this: work as long as work after 12 hours is available and work as long as one can do it. During summer, when there is a great shortage of workers, in a month double duty for 15 days is not uncommon… On an annual basis, many workers work for 36 hours 5 to 7 times in a month.
“Employees State Insurance is implemented in all factories and Provident Fund (statutory) is being imposed on unwilling workers also. After demonetisation, payment is in bank accounts. In the whole Pandesara Industrial Area, annual bonus (statutory) is not paid to workers… It certainly does not come in workers’ bank accounts. The companies may be showing it somewhere else…”
*** Conversation with a railway worker in Mumbai, January 2024
Railway worker in Mumbai: “I have been working in the railways for thirty years. I had worked in a few factories for ₹900 a month before I joined the railways. After training, I made ₹1500.
“Assistant driver of goods train. Diesel engines. Then electric engines. Assistant driver in shunting goods trains. Then, as an independent shunting driver, I made ₹3000 monthly. And after ten years I was made a goods train driver where my monthly earning was ₹5-8000. After working for four years as a goods train driver, I was made a passenger train driver.
“I became a local train driver in Mumbai. I had been running local trains for three years when one day I slightly overstepped a signal. Punishment: No driving. Stationary duty. Mental torture. Cut in earnings, a monthly loss of ₹5-10 thousands. Then three steps demotion, back to driving goods trains.
“After a four year punishment, I was made a local train driver again. Monthly earning ₹30,000. After the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations were implemented in 2016, monthly earning ₹40-45 thousands. It is milege that constitutes major part of the earnings of railways running staff. In all, today I make more than a hundred thousand rupees a month.
“When I joined the railways, three of us shared a room at ₹900 monthly rent. There was a great shortage of housing. When my wife joined me in Mumbai, we had to deposit a big amount of ₹15,000 as security besides the monthly rent of ₹1200
“The main issue for the railways running staff is safety. One has to be very alert. Such attention has to be paid that continuous work for long is simply not feasible.
“Local train driver has to focus on the main signal and drive in accordance with it. Intermittently, over head wire has to be looked at. And those crossing the tracks have to be kept in mind… Keep an eye on level crossings, earlier they were too many but not many level crossings now.
“Even signals are of four kinds… All the signals are automatic signals since 1986. Speed has to be as per a section of the route. One has to have full information about the section one has to drive through. Some sections are of 8, some of 6, some are of 4 hours duration. To be updated, the driver has to keep studying loco engines.
“Earlier there used to be some concession with some routes. But no more. Now every running staff has to work for ten hours. If the reliever does not arrive, one simply cannot leave for twelve hours. One cannot go home. 16 hours have to be spent in the rest room, can be called to work at any time. Extreme strictness.
“There are no festivals for railways running staff. There are no Sundays. Trains run 365 days in the year. In a week, 30 hours are given for rest. There is no fixed routine of duty for running staff. Join at all time, leave at all the time. If there is a break, be in the rest room. In this scenario, home rest is indispensable… If there is no complete rest, the work cannot be done. Running staff have only ten casual, ten special, and thirty days leave with payment. No family life. No social life. Railways running staff are told to adjust life.
“Office staff in the railways have a five day week. They have all festivals leave. In lieu of festival leave, earlier running staff were given ₹60, and now ₹630.
“There are 3200 local trains in Mumbai. But only 2200 drivers and 2200 guards. A driver and guard operate three local trains. During break, stay in the rest room. These rooms have been built wherever space has been available. Running staff rest rooms are on the platform, in the yard, in the siding. Railway workers have to cross the tracks. There are multiple tracks that a railway worker has to cross to join duty. Accidents happen.
“A driver and guard have to report 35 minutes before work starts. For this one has to leave residence at times half an hour and at times two hours before the reporting time. If one is in the rest room, then tracks have to be crossed… On 16 December 2023, local train driver Mr. D.K. Nag had stayed at the Titwala rest room. He was to take 0646 local train from Titwala station to CST station. From the rest room, Mr. Nag was crossing the tracks to reach the platform when he was hit by the Gorakhpur Express train. Driver Mr. D.K.Nag died.”
*** Train journey from Trivandrum to Chennai, 28-29 February 2024
On 28 February a B.Tech. (Electrical and Electronics) was a co-passenger on the train from Trivandrum to Chennai. For a job, he had to work in a consultancy service that did statutory compliance needs of corporates. The job had no connection with his engineering education and he disliked the work. Besides the online compliance work, he had to take hard copies of relevant documents to government offices in different places. The young engineer said, “To qualify for employment, my elder brother went to England for a masters degree. There he met a nurse from Kerala. She was working in Ireland. They married. Now my brother is also working in Ireland.”
Another young co-passenger from Kerala was on his way to Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu. This friend could converse only in the Malyalam language. He works in a restaurant in Kancheepuram. With some effort he said, “The work is from 8 am to 9 pm. No weekly off days. For 13 hour work for 30-31 days ₹25000 is the payment. There are 25 workers in the restaurant.”
Another co-passenger was on his way to Chennai to check CNG filling stations. He was a technical worker articulate in English and Hindi besides his mother tongue Malayalam. From Palakkad in Kerala he was traveling to Chennai as part of his job.
At Tiruvalla station, three young construction workers from villages in Malda district of Bengal became co-passengers. They were on their way home via Chennai. 24 year old Abdul has worked for one year in Kashmir and three years in Kerala. 24 year old Kalam has worked five years in Kerala, one year in Mumbai, one year in Pune, six months in Chennai. 28 year old Akhtar has worked for five years in Kashmir and five years in Kerala.
At night on 28 February, a young European lady thought that my seat was her’s… In the morning, I found her on the side seat and we had a good conversation. She was a philosophy student in Italy and did part-time jobs as a school teacher and restaurant worker to meet her expenses. She did not see any job opportunities after completing her philosophy degree.
*** Conversation with a young computer science graduate in Tamil Nadu
A young man, son of a peasant family in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu completed his graduation in computer science from the Thiruvalluvar University, Vellore in 2019.
The young man’s first job was at GRT Jewellers in Chennai. His duty was from 9:30 am to 10:30 pm. Weekly rest. He was employed as an accountant. For 13 hours of work for 26 days, the young computer science graduate was paid ₹10,000. The young man worked for a whole year at GRT Jewellers at the same monthly payment.
Monthly minimum statutory wages in Tamil Nadu from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Accountant in Zone A, ₹10,635. This amount is for 8 hours duty and a weekly day off. GRT Jewellers were paying ₹10,000 for 13 hours of work each day and a weekly day off. Work after 8 hours is over time work and payment for over time is double the rate for the normal work hours. As per the laws, GRT Jewellers did not pay the accountant 10 hours payment for each of the working day. As per the law, monthly payment for the accountant should have been ₹23,919. The young computer science graduate worked for 12 months at GRT Jewellers. GRT Jewellers did not pay ₹1,67,825 legal dues of the accountant.
And a look at the Corporate Social Responsibility of GRT Jewellers as per their presentation:
Free food to 4,500 poor people everyday.
₹30 lakh equipment donated to the ESI Hospital at K.K.Nagar.
One crore rupees donation to Tirunveli Home.
₹25 lakh donation to Anandhan NGO.
GRT Jewellers are merely one example of the violation of the payment of minimum wages act in Tamil Nadu. Stores in Chennai and other cities have 1000 to 1500 workers. The stores have separate hostels for their women and men workers. Stores have their canteens for preparing breakfast, tea, lunch, and dinner for their workers. Workers in stores work for 12-13 hours each day and monthly payment is ₹10,000.
The young computer science graduate left GRT Jewellers and joined a departmental store in Cuddalore as a billing clerk at ₹13,000 monthly payment. He left the job after six months.
The young man has joined a computer coaching centre in Chennai for a six months course. The fees for the course is ₹40,000.
*** A brief interaction with MRF Tyre workers in Chennai
A friend, a young worker is very well informed of the industrial scenario in Tamil Nadu due to his job which involves supply of measurement instruments to factories. He took me to Wimco Nagar, Tiruvottiyur to meet MRF Tyre factory workers on 5 March. It was a long journey: local train from T Nagar (Mambalam station) to Chennai Central and then a metro ride to Wimco Nagar metro station. The MRF factory gate is adjacent to the metro station.
We met some regular workers of MRF Tyre factory after their morning shift. A conversation at a tea shop:
The Tiruvottiyur factory is the first factory of MRF Tyre Company. Production here
began in 1963.
In these thirty plus years, MRF Chennai workers have managed to put brakes on the large scale retrenchment of permanent workers and en masse hiring of temporary workers. In the nine other tyre and tube factories that MRF has set up, temporary workers are the vast majority amongst their workers.
Longterm management-union agreements were a three year affair upto 1990. After 1990, it became a 4 year, five year, ten year affair.
In 1996, there was a 32 days stoppage of production by the workers not entering the Tiruvottiyur factory. In 2004, there was one month stoppage of production by the workers entering the factory but not operating the machines. In 2009 the MRF Tyre Company implemented a 64 day lockout of the Tiruvottiyur factory.
The second factory of MRF Tyre Company started in 1970 at Kottayam, Kerala. The third in 1971 at Goa. The fourth in 1972 at Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu. The fifth factory, in 1989 at Sadasivapet, Telengana. The sixth factory in 1996 at Pondicherry. The seventh tyre factory in 2011 at Ankanpally, Sadasivapet, Telengana. The eighth factory set up in 2011 at Trichy, Tamil Nadu. The ninth factory in 2012 was also established at Trichy. The tenth factory established in 2018 at Dahej, Gujarat. In the MRF Sri Lanka factory Precured Tread Rubber production started in 2006.
During the work stoppages by workers and lockout by the Company at the Chennai factory, normal production went on in the other MRF Tyre factories.
MRF Tyre Chennai factory workers remember the 1966 police firing on WIMCO match factory workers (this major match manufacturing factory shut down and only its name remains). MRF workers remember the 1971 stoppage of work by their predecessors by not entering the factory and WIMCO, Enfield, Carborundum Universal, Sundram Estate, Ashok Leyland, KCP military machine factories workers joined the MRF Tyre workers and stopped work in those factories. This was during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s preparations in 1971 to break Pakistan and help the birth of Bangladesh.
In these thirty years, a fourfold increase in workload on MRF Tyre Chennai workers has been imposed by the Company. Instead of all workers in production being permanent workers, the Company has managed to employ twenty percent temporary workers in production. The MRF Tyre Company has put a leash on the wages of permanent workers: a skilled worker’s monthly payment after thirty years service is ₹70,000 only.
In the other MRF Tyre factories, permanent to temporary workers ratio is the current factory ratio, around ten percent permanent and ninety percent temporary workers. In the three Enfield motorcycle factories there are not even five percent regular workers.
Skyrocketing dividends on MRF Tyre shares
As per the information made public by the 62nd Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of MRF Tyre company:
Face value of a share: ₹10.
Number of shareholders: 37,213
Promoter and Promoter Group: 1,177,557 shares
Public Institutions: 1,298,556 shares
Non-Institution Public: 1,765,030 shares.
Money for the establishment of companies is collected via shares and loans. As per a study in the 1990s, around 15 percent of the required money is from shares and about 85 percent from loans.
The dividend paid by MRF Tyre Company on a share of ₹10 is ₹169 (1690 percent) for the financial year ended on 31st March 2023.
*** Conversation with a poor peasant-pharma research worker in the train to Pune, March 2024
18 hour train journey. Co-passengers:
Family of a digital manufacturing research worker in an auto company in Chennai. A pharma research worker in Chennai. Besides English and Hindi, the two research workers could converse in Marathi, Telugu, and Tamil. Two co-passengers could converse only in Telugu. They were on their way to the Andhra Pradesh capital and would detrain around 3 am.
The atmosphere in our part of the compartment was enlivened during 6 to 9 pm by a 10-12 month child of the digital manufacturing friend.
I was not even aware of digital manufacturing. The young automobile research friend was patient and polite. In the morning at 8 am, the family deboarded at Sholapur station.
A young pharmaceutical research worker
On the 16 March morning, we had a three hour one to one interaction.
The pharma research worker was born in a poor peasant family of a village in Satara district in Maharashtra state.
Rain-dependent agriculture. Eight acres land. Five acres on the flat top of a hill. Cultivation of sorghum, groundnut, soyabean. Irrigation from 2018, and in three acres now sugarcane is cultivated.
Six brothers and a sister. One uncle worked in Mumbai, one in Pune, two in Satara. Three are no more. Many cousins, working in different places and in multiple fields. The family continues to be a joint family. During the annual village festival in April and on the occasion of marriage, family gathering in the spacious house in the village. It is brief get-togethers that have kept the joint family intact… ten days together would suffice for splits.
“With my youngest uncle, my father and mother worked in the village. We did not have bullocks. With rented bullocks my father ploughed our fields. This he did up to 2003. We did not have any cow. We had three buffaloes.
“I was the first born. I was a very naughty boy. I would play all the time. I feared going to school. I was an average student.
“Up to class seven, I was in my village school. Medium of instruction was Marathi language. English was taught from class five onwards. All the students were afraid of English.
“After school, I used to go to our fields also. I would bring fodder for our buffaloes. On Saturday and Sunday, I and my friends would go to the hill top. We took our buffaloes for grazing. On the plane hilltop, we played the whole day. The population of our village was around 4,000 and everyone knew one-another.
“A son of my mother’s sister was studying at Walwa in Sangli district, 70 kilometres from my village. In class 8, I joined my cousin at Walwa.
“Nagnath Anna Naykwadi had built a school in memory of his friend who died fighting against the rule of the British government in India. Hutatma Kisan Ahir Vidyalaya (Martyr Kisan Ahir School), Walwa up to class 10. The medium of instruction was Marathi. Separate school for girls and boys. Then there were co-ed inter and graduate colleges.
“Besides the schools and colleges, Anna had built two hostels. For boys from class 8 up to graduation. For girls from inter college to graduate college. There were 300 boys and 300 girls in the hostels. Lodging and food was free. The students were from economically poor families. There were students from all parts of Maharashtra. Anna did not send back any student who came for admission. Anna and his wife, Mai stayed in the campus. Their son is in politics, in sugar co-operative mill politics.
“In the schools there were more than 700 boys (and girls), most of them local students. During 2000-2003, when I was there, 40-50 hostel boys were in the school. Most of the students in the hostels are inter and graduate college students.
“Anna demonstrated on local issues. During 2000-2003, sometimes I also joined him.
After Anna’s death four years ago, free hostel days are over.
“In the hostel, arise at 5 am. Prayer. Bath. Study up to 7 am. Good breakfast. Food was served by batches of 10 students. Wash one’s plate. A dozen women prepared the food.
“Lots of space for sports. And a river nearby to swim!
“After breakfast on Sunday, we would go to nearby vineyards for work. When there was work, a day’s payment was ₹40. This was our pocket money.
“Education up to class 10 was full of fun!
“My father wanted me to study horticulture and then clear the competition examination for a government job. My father’s elder brother was a railway worker in Pune. I stayed with him and studied horticulture in an inter college. Medium of study was Marathi.
“Then in 2005 in Pune, I joined a four year degree course in horticulture. The medium was English. Practical experiments were agricultural work that I had already done. I had no interest in the course. After the first year, I left horticulture. My father was offended.
“Leaving Pune, in 2007 I joined a graduate college with Physics, Chemistry, and Biology in Patan, near my village. The medium was English and for the first six months I did not understand anything. There were practical classes and I found Chemistry experiments very interesting. For the final year, a subject had to be chosen and I took Chemistry.
“For masters, I was back to Pune in 2009. I took an education loan of ₹120,000. The college was in the Pune Camp area. In the first year, I rented a room in Nigadi and in the second year at Hadapsar.
“My first job was as an analyst in a pharmaceutical manufacturing factory at ₹10,000 monthly payment. There were around 800 workers in production, three 8 hour shifts, and continuous production. Weekly off days were scattered. The location was some distance from Pune. Stayed in a rented room. A neighbour in the village was a manager in the factory. By then my English was a little better but even now, I am not at ease in English. After completion of a year, monthly payment ₹11,000.
“There are many pharmaceutical factories in Goa. Three friends from my village were working there. I joined a factory in the Verna area in quality checking as an analyst at ₹22,000 monthly payment. There were around a thousand workers and one shift, 0900-17:30. I shared a room with three friends from my village who were employed in a different pharma factories in Madgaon. One meal we had in factory canteens and one meal we prepared in the room. It was fun. One prepared the flour, another made roti (bread), one cooked a vegetable, one washed the utensils. This was for 18 months!
“In 2015, in a research and development centre of a prominent pharmaceutical company in Pune, I was employed as a research worker at ₹30,000 monthly payment with ten percent annual increment. In three years, I paid back my education loan.
“With a cousin in a software company, I shared a room in Pune. We did not cook in the evening, went out to dinner. My marriage in 2017. I took an independent flat on rent. In 2019, I built a house in Pune. From the village, I brought my mother and father to Pune. My father died in 2023.
“In the Pune pharmaceutical research & development centre, there were 2000 regular and 1000 temporary workers. One shift from 0900 to 1800 hours. The research centre was ten kilometres from Pune City.
“With colleagues, I was involved in researching methods for the development of analysis of drugs. It was different from my earlier work. Now the methods we were developing would be applied in factories.
“I was staying in my house when the Corona-19 lockdown was declared by the government of India. Traveling by one’s own means was not allowed.
“The company declared duty on alternate days and no change in hours of work. It was an essential service, so I was given a letter by the company that permitted traveling during the lockdown period. Two months before the lockdown declaration, a son was born. During the Corona-19 lockdown periods, the child, my mother, father, wife, and I spent joyful time together.
“The pharmaceutical company that I worked in was a global company. It had manufacturing factories in different parts of India. Generic and brand drugs were by and large exported to the US.
“I had worked for seven years in the research centre. My monthly payment was ₹70,000. In 2022, I left the job and took up another job.
“I joined a pharmaceutical research & development company in Hyderabad at ₹100,000 monthly payment. There were more than 3000 research workers. In my group, we were 100. Here also, a five days work week. I rented a room in Hyderabad and on Friday and Sunday evenings travelled between Hyderabad and Pune.
“What I was not aware of was that the company whose research and development centre I had joined in Hyderabad did not have its own pharmaceutical manufacturing factories. It was a CRO (Contract Research Organisation).
“We had a five day work week. But, delivery on time meant not only heavy workload, it also meant a lot of pressure. One had to work for 11-12 hours each day. There was no time for one’s own self! Within a few days, I began looking for an alternative job.
“After 14 months in the CRO company, I joined a pharmaceutical research and development centre of a global company in Chennai. This company has many factories in India manufacturing drugs. My monthly payment is ₹145,000.
*** Conversation with a young worker in Faridabad, September 2024
On 15 September 2024 a young worker came to Faridabad Majdoor Samachar meeting place and at ease shared his experiences & their readings. We wanted to circulate them immediately but they got bogged down in the preparation for the five month journey for conversational interactions…
On Sunday, 27 October the young friend came to collect copies of Satrangi-2 (A book in Hindi, selections from January 2005 to December 2009 issues of Faridabad Majdoor Samachar). His September interaction flashed… From the notes:
Young worker: “I was born in 2002 in a shanty residential area in Faridabad. My mother was a housewife and my father a factory worker. My father had worked in industrial areas in Bahadurgarh (Haryana state), Okhla (Delhi), NOIDA (UP state), and Faridabad. In a long drawn conflict between workers and a company, with his two co-workers my father was thrown out of the company’s factory in NOIDA. Now he is working in a factory in Faridabad.
“I am the only child of my parents. From class one to ten, I was sent to a private school. Then I joined a model government school for class eleven and twelve. Boys class there had seven sections and more than seventy students in each section. There was no space in the classroom for benches. We sat on mats. Sometimes mats would be spread out in the veranda. Girls had separate sections and they had benches. The Haryana Education Board examination result was good, sixty percent students were successful. I obtained first class division in the examination. For further studies, I joined an open university for distance education but dropped midway…
First Job
“Class twelve examination ended on 28 April 2022 and with a friend’s help, I joined an Imperial Auto Company factory (13/6 Mathura Road, Faridabad) as a worker hired through a contractor company. Aadhaar, the national biometric identity card, was compulsory for employment… I had it from class five.
“Monthly payment ₹10,600. Over time work was compulsory and payment for it was at single rate instead of the statutory double rate. Work in two shifts: 9am to 7:30pm and 7:30pm to 7:30am. Sunday was the weekly day off in the factory but work in two shifts went on as usual.
First day in the factory
“On entry I saw iron & steel all-around in the factory. I was worried regarding my work… But I was given quality check work on the assembly line for big parts of JCB earthmoving and construction machines.
“Entry of my name in a register. I was asked for the Aadhaar and phone numbers. Statutory ESI (Employees State Insurance) and PF (Provident Fund) requirements would be completed by the staff members. After ESI and PF amount deduction, salary would be sent to my bank account.
“A man came from the office and in ten minutes he taught quality checking to me… There should not be any dent on the nut, no dust in the nut. My work was to just check these two. There were 8 workers in the final checking and each checked a different aspect.
“The department was called export line and it had three assembly lines. All the products were exported. It is a big factory with more than a thousand workers.
“Except me, all the workers chatted while working. I was new, I was apprehensive.
“A 15 minute tea-break at 11:00. I went to the canteen and had tea with my friend working in another department. There were benches for 300 to sit. Some workers had their tea standing while some took tea cups to their departments.
“Work recommenced on the line from 11:15 and continued up to the lunch-break at 13:00.
“During the half hour lunch time, I had food with my friend in the canteen. We had taken home cooked food because the factory canteen is a canteen only in name: no food is prepared there, only tea and biscuits are available there. Some workers went out of the factory for food on three carts at the factory gate.
“After lunch the line started at 13:35. Tea break at 15:30 and then work on the line up to 17:30.
“It was my first day. No card punching by me. So I was let off at 17:30. I took my bike straight home.
“Mother and wife: ‘How was it?’ Stand and work. All over the factory one has to stand up and work. It was very difficult on the first day. The next morning I got out of bed with great effort. I forced myself to the factory.
Daily life in the factory
“Compulsory over time from the second day. I was relieved at 19:30 whereas many workers were let off at 20:30, 22:00 hours. Sunday is the weekly day off but every Sunday work in the whole factory in two shifts goes on. Shifts change in 15 days.
“In the first night shift duty, after 01:00 my hands slowed down. The line continued, my work was done by some other workers. I slept standing on a running line. For two nights the supervisor did not say much. After that I started working like others.
“Relations with people developed and after twenty days, I was at ease in the factory. Lots of fun. During tea and lunch breaks we sat together. There was no difference between day and night work.
“No pressure during night shift. Work was done at an easier pace. But sleeping at night for even an hour was simply not allowed. There is a supervisor with the specific task of not allowing anyone to sleep. All are small assembly lines, 10-12 workers on a line, and a camera on each line.
“22:00 to 22:30 break for dinner in the night shift. Then tea at 00:00 and 02:00. Sleep envelopes everyone. In many factories workers manage 1-2-3 hours sleep during night shift but Imperial Auto management does not allow even a nap at night.
“Fights break out amongst workers in the factory. More fights during the night. Complaints are made by cameras. A crowd gathers during fights. Those who are caught by cameras have to go to the Human Resources department. Enquiry takes place. Write an application assuring no repetition… entry card put on hold for a week.
“After two months of quality checking on the JCB line, I was sent to the testing department. There were 6 machines and two workers on each machine. Without any training, I was to operate a machine. It was day shift and the other worker on the machine taught me to operate it. It took me 15 days to get trained.
“I continued working in the testing department. After 15 months of operating a machine, my category was changed from that of an unskilled worker to one of semi-skilled worker. With a wage increase of ₹900, my monthly payment was ₹11,500.
“All the workers in the factory are hired through contractor companies. Not a single worker is a regular worker. Only staff members are on the company’s payment roll. Those workers who have been working for 15 years in the Imperial Auto factory are temporary workers.
“As per the Bonus Act, a month’s wage as yearly bonus is compulsory and an enterprise in loss also has to pay it as it is defined as a differed wage… In Imperial Auto factory annual bonus is given at Diwali festival time but it is given to only those workers who have worked for more than 5 years in the factory. And yes, two packets of sweets are given to each worker — one packet by Imperial Auto Company and the other packet by the contractor company through which the worker has been hired.
“Over time on Sunday, the weekly day off, is paid at the statutory double rate. And on Sunday the management does not allow some old workers to do over time.The management calls them shirkers. Around ten percent of workers in the factory are shirkers…
“I was on the look out for higher payment jobs. I had worked for more than two years in the Imperial Auto factory when I came across a vacancy in a marketing company…
Love Marriage
“When I joined the government model school in class eleven, a girl from my locality was studying there in tenth class. In 2021 we fell in love. We wanted to marry. My lover’s family vehemently opposed it. Many problems. Conspiracies and deceptions. We were called to the police station. We both stood firm. We had an inter-caste marriage. Now we live together.
Job in a marketing company
“Job in the marketing company was in Jaipur. Monthly payment ₹16,000. Interview was held in Delhi. Selected and told to go to Jaipur at our own expense and join there. I reached Jaipur at the beginning of 2024.
“Two to three thousand workers in Jaipur office. Four storey building. More than 300 boys & girls on each floor. Girls far outnumbered boys. There were friendly relations between boys and girls. We called one-another by name.
“The company had made arrangements for residence and food. About a kilometre and a half from the office a 14 storey building had been hired for residence of boys. Flats with two rooms and four persons in each room. The adjacent building was for girls.
“Eight of us collectively cooked in the flat. Gadgets, utensils and food items were provided by the company. We got up around six in the morning. Prepared lunch to leave it in the flat. There was a canteen in the basement and a local dish for breakfast at ₹30 was very tasty. Everyone had breakfast in the canteen.
“Office hours were from 09:00 to 16:30. No over time. Everyone walked from the residence to the office.
“The company charged ₹3,000 for 6 months of housing & food.
“In the adjacent building for girls residence, the boys were not allowed entry. Outdoors girls and boys could roam around anywhere.
“No work on first day in the office. We were taken around and shown what all the work was and how it was done. Next day onwards, I was given the work of recording in a register the goods despatched to different states, and the names of the companies there. The same work and the same seat for three months.
“There were no supervisors. Each worker was busy in her/his work.
“Workers were from different states. The company did not hire workers from Jaipur. Even from Rajasthan, only those persons were hired who resided more than 280 kilometre away from Jaipur. It was said that local workers do not listen to the company and quarrel a lot. I found the behaviour of local people and co-workers from other states very nice. A large number of workers were from UP and Bihar states.
“After three months, I was sent from Jaipur to Anand, 30 kilometres from Vadodara in Gujarat state. The company has 6-7 thousand workers there. The office was in three four storey buildings at short distances from one-another. Local workers were not hired by the company. Only those workers from Gujarat were hired who resided more than 250 kilometres away. All other things were very much like in Jaipur.
“Most of the workers in the Gujarat office were from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar. Besides me, a worker from Faridabad, a worker from UP, and a worker from Chhattisgarh were in the room. Three of us did not understand the Chhattisgarh worker’s language.
“In the office 8-10 workers from Bihar were trying to boss over as seniors. Listen to us, respect us… We three roommates got into an argument with them. They complained to the Human Resources department. And we three were thrown out of the job.
“After working for three months in Gujarat, I returned to Faridabad at the beginning of August 2024.
“From the first week of September, I have been employed in another big auto parts factory in Faridabad through a contractor company. Monthly payment is ₹12,500.”
*** Conversations with Factory Workers in Vadodara
In Vadodara district, relaxed conversations were held with some factory workers at the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation’s (GIDC) Waghodia Industrial Estate on November 7 and 9, 2024. Later, between November 22 and 25, more interactions took place with factory workers in Ahmedabad. Here’s a glimpse into the lives of some factory workers:
Factory Worker: “My father moved from a village in Savli Taluka to Vadodara city, rented a room, and started driving an auto-rickshaw. I was born in 1985. I passed the 12th grade from a Gujarati medium government school.
“From the age of 10–12, I distributed campaign materials during elections to earn a little money. My parents built a small room outside the city. At the age of 14, I began delivering newspapers to 70 homes for ₹200 per month. A contractor would deliver newspaper bundles to our house early in the morning. Regardless of the weather, I would leave at 5 a.m. after brushing my teeth, complete the delivery in 2–2.5 hours, and return home. After bathing, I would study or nap depending on my mood before heading to school at 10 a.m. I delivered newspapers until I completed 12th grade in 2002.
“The school was 8 kilometers away, and the road to our house was unpaved. Initially, I cycled to school; later, after a road was built, I used a city bus pass that cost ₹50 per month. Many boys from nearby areas traveled together, and we had lots of friends. Teachers supported me, acknowledging that I worked to help my family. I never failed a class. During vacations, I worked part-time in offices or shops, earning ₹250–750 per month.
“I enrolled in a B.Com program at a college in a nearby village. Friends and their relatives who were teachers managed my attendance. I cleared the first year, but during my second year, I was involved in a motorcycle accident with a friend. I stopped going to college after that.
“In 2003, my father’s friend helped me get a standby temporary worker job at Apollo Tyres Factory. The factory employed many standby workers as well as workers hired through contractor companies besides a large number of regular workers. In the Apollo Tyres there were 4,000 workers in all. My daily wage was ₹80–82, paid monthly. After a year, I was laid off.
“After leaving Apollo Tyres, I worked in shops for two years.
“In May 2006, I joined Munjal Auto Factory as a worker through a contractor company. I earned ₹82 for 8 hours of work but worked 12 hours daily for 30 days a month. Overtime was paid at a single rate instead of double. While people said Apollo Tyres had a heavy workload, I realized Munjal Auto was far more demanding.
“I worked in the paint shop, spraying paint with a gun. The masks provided were worth ₹2, and the paint fumes would leave my nose colored.
“The roads were in poor condition then. At night, it was difficult to find transportation in the Waghodia Industrial Estate. After 12 hours of work, I finished at 7:30 p.m., hitching rides in sand-laden trucks to Vadodara. Sometimes, after 16 hours of work, I would sleep outside a shop near Munjal Auto’s gate and use vegetable tempos starting at 4 a.m. to return home. From where I was dropped off, I walked 2 kilometres to my house, bathed, and left to reach the factory by 7 a.m.
“About 10% of workers consumed ₹10 liquor pouches after their shifts. Despite prohibition in Gujarat, alcohol was available, and the police earned from it.
“For the morning shift I walked two kilometres to catch a shared auto around 06:30 to the factory. Instead of 7+1 capacity of the auto, 15-20 Munjal Auto workers would get on it. Hardly any traffic at that time and we would be at the factory by 07:00.
“After a year, I bought a motorcycle, which I shared with two or three coworkers.
“The Gujarat Cycle Factory was established in 1987 to export bicycles over a 100-acre plot. Initially, it employed 262 permanent workers and 100 staff. In 1990 the first union was formed by the Shiv Sena: a month long strike, police firing, and court cases, the union was crushed. Then a lawyer formed a union, crushed.
“1992 onwards workers hired through contractor companies were employed in production work. In 1995, Baroda Majdoor Panchayat affiliated to central union HMS formed its union in Munjal Auto factory and it continued upto 2009. The district union leaders did not come to the factory and the factory leaders were in the management’s lap. The leaders bossed over workers in the factory.
“1997 onwards the factory began producing auto parts, and its name was changed to Munjal Auto Industries. There were 250 regular workers and 700+ workers hired through contractor companies. Silencers and wheel rims of all models of Hero Honda bikes besides fuel tanks for Tata Motors were manufactured in the Munjal Auto factory.
“18-20 thousand plated and painted silencers were made each day. It was urgent everyday, once or twice a week auto parts would be sent by air. There was extreme pressure for production on workers hired through contractor companies… Union leaders said they were concerned only with regular workers.
“In 2009, over 700 workers hired through contractor companies self-organised themselves. The 250 regular workers pissed off by the increasing work load and bossism of the leaders were looking for another union. Regular workers and the workers hired through contractor companies went to Vadodara and met the leader of Chemical Majdoor Panchayat.
“Munjal Auto management continued to recognise the HMS affiliated union. On a Sunday out of a thousand workers only the 6 union leaders reached the factory for over time work. Immediately the management recognised the Chemical Majdoor Panchayat affiliated union in the factory.
“In early 2010 for the regular workers management-union three year agreement talks began… Then the workers hired through contractor companies asked the top leader and regular workers about their interests. Assurance of regularisation…
“After the Diwali festival in 2011, management-union agreement was reached. From amongst workers hired through contractor companies, those who had been working for more than 5 years in the Munjal Auto factory, 203 were made regular workers.
“[The upsurge of Maruti Suzuki Manesar factory workers during June-October 2011 had scared the bosses in the industrial areas of the national capital region. The Hero Honda management in Gurgaon had then given concessions to placate workers hired through contractor companies.] It seems that the Hero Honda company baby in Gujarat, the Munjal Auto Industries management also had been scared by the upsurge of Maruti Suzuki Manesar factory workers…
“I was amongst the 203 who were made regular workers…
“To weaken the Vadodara factory workers, during 2011-12 Munjal Auto company established factories at Bawal, Dharuhera, and Haridwar. In the Vadodara factory mainly auto parts for the Hero Motocorp factory at the Halol Industrial Area and Tata Motors factory in Sanand are manufactured…
“In the Munjal Auto factory there are three shifts in Press Shop and Electroplating department. There are two shifts in the Paint Shop, Welding Shop, and Rim manufacturing. Weekly rest on Sunday.
“During 2011-15: job, bike, fun with friends. A single room house for mother, father, uncle, younger brother and me
“Marriage in 2015. A room on rent. Younger brother employed in Vodafone company. We brothers took a bank loan of ₹1.5 million and bought a three room house in July 2017. Eight years old daughter and five years old son…
“In 2013, the Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS), the central union of the Bharatiya Janata Party, formed its union in the Munjal Auto Factory with the promise of immediately making regular all the workers hired through contractor companies. Over 500 workers hired through contractor companies came in support of this new union, along with some permanent workers.
“The leader of the Chemical Majdoor Panchayat proposed allowing their union to remain in the factory. The Munjal Auto Factory workers decided to have only one union in the factory: the majority union. Thus, the BMS union was established in the Munjal Auto Factory.
“The promise was to make everyone regular immediately… but the entire year of 2014 passed without action. In January 2015, during the management-union agreement, only 130 out of the 500+ workers hired through contractor companies were made permanent, with plans to make another 30 permanent the following year
“The district BMS leaders rarely visited the factory. The union leaders within the factory became even more domineering than the previous leaders. The BMS leaders in Vadodara repeatedly ignored complaints from the Munjal Auto Factory workers…
“In response, the Munjal Auto Factory workers started putting pressure on the management. Workers stopped listening to union leaders and ceased following management’s instructions. To keep the factory running, management decided to hold elections.
“At that time, the factory had 623 permanent workers, 121 old workers hired through contractor companies, and 300 new workers hired through contractor companies. Munjal Auto management asked the 623 regular workers to elect seven union leaders from amongst themselves. The elections were held on August 4, 2017.
“The new union was not affiliated with any external union. It was registered as an independent union of Munjal Auto workers in 2018 and was recognised by the company. Production work in normal conditions in the factory.
“During the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the factory was closed. It reopened on May 11, and all permanent workers were called back within a month. However, the 121 old workers hired through contractor companies were not reinstated. Complaints to the labour department. Date after date… numerous hearings… after six months the management gradually got rid of these 121 workers settling their dues with a little more money.
“Post-COVID-19, work in the Munjal Auto factory significantly declined. The management began issuing charge sheets to permanent workers who had frequent absences from duty. Based on six years of attendance records, 80–90 workers were charged. Some extra money was given to get rid of them.
“Additionally, over 55 permanent workers nearing the end of their tenure were given extra compensation and let go. More than 45 retired, and 7–8 passed away.
“Between 2020 and 2024, the number of permanent workers in the Munjal Auto factory was reduced from 623 to 397.
“The company has hired 300 new workers through contractor companies. These workers are referred to as ’11-month workers.’ Once their 11-month term ends, the Munjal Auto management formally terminates them on paper, assigns them new numbers, and continues employing them in the factory.”
*** Conversation with a TATA Motors Sanand factory worker on 22 November 2024
During November 22 and 25 at ease conversational interactions with some factory workers were made possible by friends in Ahmedabad.
Factory Worker: “I was born in Bhavnagar city in 1991. My mother passed away during my childhood. I have an elder brother, an elder sister, and a younger sister. My father was in selling Ayurvedic medicines. With the help of my aunt and uncle, my father raised us.
“I completed my ITI (Industrial Training Institute) from the ITI Centre for Excellence (Automobile) in Bhavnagar. This is a two-and-a-half-year course. After the first year, I specialized in six months of advanced petrol, six months of advanced diesel, and six months of advanced electronics.
“After completing my ITI in 2009, I opened a workshop in Bhavnagar and worked for a year and a half in four-wheeler repairs.
“In January 2010, the Tata Motors factory was established in Sanand Taluka, on 1,100 acres of land, to produce the Nano car. The Tata Motors factory occupied 741 acres in the villages of Khoda and Bol, and the Tata Vendor Park was on 359 acres. I joined Tata Motors as an apprentice on February 19, 2011. After six months, I was placed in a two-year company training (CT) program. After one year, I was made part of the Tata Motors Team Member (TTM) program. I was assured that after completing the TTM, I would be made permanent, but instead, I was made a temporary worker (TW) for seven months. After seven months, I was let go with the excuse that there was no place, and they would call me later.
“After being dismissed from Tata Motors, I went to Rajkot for an open interview for Maruti Suzuki’s Gurgaon factory. Out of around 350 applicants, I was one of the 72 selected. On March 7, 2015, I reached Gurgaon, spent the first night at the bus station, and the second night outside a temple under a makeshift roof.
“In the Maruti Gurgaon factory, I was placed in the KBM Machine Shop. The working hours were from 10:00 to 17:30. The company arranged accommodation in a hall meant for 50 people, but 90 people were cramped there. It was very dirty. I found a room with the help of coworkers, and the five of us rented it for ₹12,000 a month. It was three kilometers away from the factory, so we walked to work.
“At the Maruti factory, there was no focus on safety, unlike Tata Motors. There, the attitude was just to work and leave. With 15-20 days left to complete my 7 months, I received a call from Tata Motors HR. He told me, ‘Come immediately. We are sending you a flight ticket. There is a guarantee of permanent employment.’ It was my first time flying by airplane.
“After a six-month probation, I was made permanent on October 10, 2015. In the first batch, there were 17 permanent workers with the designation AO1. In my batch, there were 450 permanent workers, and our designation was Senior AO2. My salary, or rather, Cost To Company (CTC) was ₹15,001… with ₹320 for the canteen, ₹150 for transport, and deductions for ESI and PF, leaving ₹12,500-13,000 in my bank account each month.
“The Tata Motors factory had eight assembly lines. Some lines had 40 workers, others had 30. The assembly line had 350 workers in one shift. There were two shifts in the assembly, and 800 cars were produced daily. The factory produced two models of Nano and also Tiago and Tigor cars. The factory was set up to manufacture the Nano car, with a capacity to produce 250,000 cars annually. However, the Nano didn’t sell, and less than 300,000 units were produced in ten years. Production of the Nano car was discontinued in 2018. The Tata Tiago and Tigor models are still selling. In March 2024, the Tata Motors Sanand factory produced its one millionth car.
“I worked in the Treem Chassis Final (TCF) department on the main assembly line. There were shifts from 06:30 to 15:00, from 15:00 to 23:00, and 23:30 to 06:30. There was also a general shift from 10:30 to 17:00. I worked in shifts. If 800 cars weren’t made by 23:00, we worked overtime until 01:30. Overtime was paid at double the rate, and breakfast was provided. There are three canteens in the factory, all air-conditioned, serving the same menu.
“More than 3,000 workers were hired through three or four contractor companies at the Tata Motors Sanand factory. In the last three years, 500-700 female workers have also been hired.
“I live in Sanand. I got married in January 2022. We have a daughter.
“In 2023, the Tata Motors management suspended me and issued a charge sheet. In the domestic enquiry, I was found guilty and dismissed from my job. My case is currently ongoing in the Ahmedabad Labour Court.”
*** Conversations with a General Motors Vadodara factory, AMW trucks Bhuj factory, and TATA AutoComp Sanand factory worker on 22 November 2024
Factory Worker: “I was born in a village in Mehsana district in January 1989. I have a younger sister who is married and does a job. My mother and father are peasants. I completed my 10th grade in 2006 through Gujarati medium from my village. Along with my studies, I helped my parents with household and farming work.
“About 10 kilometres from the village, I completed a two-year Motor Mechanic course at a government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in 2009. I used to travel by bus. Then I did a one-year apprenticeship at the state bus workshop.
“Companies used to come to ITI to hire workers. In 2009, the General Motors factory, located in the Halol taluka of Vadodara district, selected 30-40 workers, including me. On the first day, I was placed in the training center. I received 3 days of training for the paint shop. On the first day, at 5 PM, I travelled 5-6 kilometres by company bus. The workers searched for rooms on rent. Six of us rented a room for ₹2,000 per month. During the training, General Motors paid ₹4,000 a month. After a year, they gave a break and said they would call us back when needed.
“After leaving General Motors, an officer from the paint shop moved to the AMW truck factory in Bhuj. He contacted me and in 2010, I joined the truck factory in Bhuj in the paint shop.
“In the AMW truck factory in Bhuj, 5-6 thousand workers were employed. There were three paint shops. In the paint shop where I worked, 150 workers were divided into two shifts of 12 hours each. We worked six days a week, 12 hours a day, for ₹12,000 a month.
“The shifts were from 6 AM to 6 PM, and from 6 PM to 6 AM the next day. During the 12-hour shift, there was a half-hour lunch break and two 15-minute tea breaks. The company did not deduct any money for the canteen.
“The AMW truck company had a two-story building like a hotel located about 5-6 kilometres from the factory, in a village. It had around 300 rooms, and three workers stayed in each room. The company did not deduct any money from the salary for accommodation or buses.
“From the residence, the bus would enter the factory and drop us off at the paint shop. The guard at the paint shop would record the entry. The company provided plain cloth masks. There were no goggles or uniforms, just an apron and safety shoes.
“Kutch-Bhuj is a major industrial area, but at that time, no worker had Employee State Insurance (ESI) or Provident Fund (PF). The salary was paid in cash.
“A friend informed me about the Tata AutoComp factory in Sanand. I went for the interview and was selected. I left the AMW truck factory job after working for two months. I joined Tata AutoComp factory as a company employee. The salary was ₹6,000, paid into a bank account, with PF benefits.
“In 2011, the Tata AutoComp factory was being built. Some auto parts were starting to be manufactured. At that time, only five workers were on the company payroll.
“The Tata Motors factory and Vendor Park, located on 1100 acres of land in the villages of Bol and Khoda, were 15 kilometres away from Sanand. Two of us rented a room in Sanand for a thousand rupees per month.
“Six months later, production began at the factory. Around 300 new trainees, workers hired through contractor companies, and apprentices joined. The trainees were paid three to four thousand rupees per month. The workers hired through contractor companies were paid monthly on a daily wage basis of ₹200, with deductions for the canteen and provident fund.
“Three zones at the Tata AutoComp factory: Mould Shop, Assembly, and Paint Shop. Three out of five workers on the company roll were brought from the company’s Pune factory, and two of us were new in the Paint Shop. Amongst workers in the factory only we five received an annual salary increase of ₹200.
“The goal was to create a base, so 10 workers were made regular, and after two years, 20 more were made regular. The annual salary increases were ₹400 and ₹600.
“In 2017, there were 56 regular workers at the Tata AutoComp factory. In March, the annual increase in the salary was ₹630, but the regular workers refused to accept it and said they wanted an increase of ₹2,000.
“The regular workers formed a 6-member committee among themselves. Negotiations with the management for a year, but it had no effect… The company increased the amount from ₹630 to ₹1,180, but the regular workers still refused to accept it.
“In 2018, we contacted workers from nearby factories. Vijay, a former colleague from the General Motors factory in Halol, was very active there. The issues faced by General Motors workers were escalating. The factory had stopped production in 2018, and by 2020, General Motors India closed down.
“In 2018, when we met Vijay, he said, ‘First, form a union. Once it’s registered, you’ll be able to fight.’ Vijay introduced us to Ashim, leader of the Chemical Workers Union in Ahmedabad. He advised us to form our own independent union and offered his guidance and support.
“We, the 56 regular workers, had been collecting money among ourselves. We took steps to register the union, and by the end of 2018, it was registered. We submitted a demand letter to the management. Negotiations began. Six months later, the company agreed to ₹8,000 instead of our ₹15,000 demand. We, the regular workers, refused and insisted on ₹15,000.
“In Gujarat, leaders like Mevani and Alpesh Thakur were making statements like ‘Expel outsiders, give jobs to Gujaratis.’ Taking advantage of this, the Tata AutoComp management had a complaint filed with the police, accusing three regular workers of threatening a worker from Uttar Pradesh who had been hired through a contractor company. Using this as an excuse, the management suspended the three regular workers and stopped their entry in the factory. And a domestic inquiry by a professional lawyer in such matters was started.
“Negotiations on the demand letter were on. When this issue was raised, Tata AutoComp management said, ‘Take the amount we are offering, and we will take those three workers back.’ When we refused, the management transferred three committee members to the company’s Jamshedpur factory. They did not go to Jamshedpur, and their entry to the factory was blocked.
“Fifteen days later, all regular workers stopped work and left the factory premises. They sat outside the factory gate. They sat day and night, with tents, food, and sleeping arrangements right there. 56 regular workers sat outside the Tata AutoComp factory gate for 12 days… The police, threats… letter to the legislator, meeting with Tata Motors union leaders, calling industrial area union leaders… A meeting of a police officer, management, and factory union leaders was held and an agreement reached. From 2019, the wages of 56 regular workers increased by ₹9,600 over a four year period.
“At that time, 300 workers hired through contractor companies were working at the Tata AutoComp factory. During the 12 days when the regular workers were sitting outside the factory gate, the management had hired an additional 200 workers through contractor companies. Production continued in the factory while the regular workers were out of the factory.
“Since 2023, the management-union agreement is due, and negotiations have been ongoing for a year.
“After marriage, 8 girls from Odisha left their jobs… There are now 41 regular workers at Tata AutoComp factory with monthly payments ranging from ₹17,000 to ₹25,000.
“At Tata Autocomp factory now 500 workers hired through 6 contractor companies are employed at the Gujarat government-mandated minimum wage of ₹12,662. Over time work for 50 to 90 hours per month is paid at wage rate instead of the legally mandated double the wage rate.
“Monthly stipend of ₹17,000 is given to diploma trainees (DET) for one year and now there are 150 of them working in Tata AutoComp factory. A new batch will follow them…
“Monthly stipend of ₹12,500 is given to ITI trainees for one year. There are now 80-90 of them working in the Tata AutoComp factory. A new batch will follow them…
“Meanwhile, adjacent to the first factory, Tata AutoComp company has set up another factory. There are 300 workers there…
“In 2014, I got married and rented a separate room. We have a 5-year-old son… Since 2020, we have our own house in Ahmedabad…”
*** Conversations with a TATA Motors Sanand factory worker on 22 November 2024, Part Two
During November 22 and 25 at ease conversational interactions with some factory workers were made possible by friends in Ahmedabad.
TATA Motors Sanand Factory Worker: “I was born in a village in Vadodara district in April 1990. My parents depended on milk production and sold it to the Vadodara dairy. The family did not have land for farming. I have an older brother and a sister. I studied up to 10th grade in Gujarati medium at the village school.
“In 2007, I completed a two-year mechanical engineering course at a government ITI in Vadodara. In 2009, Tata Motors company came to the ITI to select workers for their Sanand factory, and 15-20 workers were chosen, including me.
“In January 2010, I was part of the first batch of trainees at Tata Motors Sanand factory. My training/work was in the paint shop for two years. The company paid ₹4,000 a month. Four of us rented a room for ₹2,000.
“After completion of the two-year training, the company terminated the trainees and said that they would be informed when needed. I went back to my village and stayed there. A year later, the company called me back.
“In 2013, Tata Motors hired me at ₹10,000 per month. After a 6-month probation, I was made a regular worker, with an annual salary increase of ₹1,000.
“By 2015, 400 regular workers. And 2-3 thousand trainees were working in the factory.
“In 2015, regular workers in the welding, assembly, engine, and paint shops refused the ₹1,000 annual salary increase.
“Conversations began among workers from different departments. The idea of forming a union came up, and the name of a worker at the General Motors factory, Vijay came up. We contacted him: What is a union? How to form a union? A meeting in which 500 regular workers participated was held in a large hall in Ahmedabad. Decision: We will form a union that would be an independent union.
“In early 2016, as the process of forming the union began, the Tata Motors management was given the list of workers in the leadership by the labour department. Even before the registration of the union, the management suspended two of the leaders. When the suspension notices were received, all regular workers stopped work and gathered inside the factory gate. A day & night sit-down began. After two days the police threatened the workers and spoke to the management, it is winter time, stop it.
“On the third day, a meeting was held at the Labour Commissioner’s office. Assurance: Within a month, the suspended workers would be reinstated after an external investigation. The regular workers resumed work.
“A month passed. The suspended workers were not taken back. Demanding an answer, in February all the regular workers again stopped work and began a sit-down inside the factory gate. The Tata Motors management came with a list of 26 new suspensions and announced it. All the workers continued the sit-down.
“After two days of sit-down inside the factory gate, the Gujarat government declared the strike illegal and ordered that regular workers be removed from the factory.
“The police forced us out of the factory premises. All regular workers began a sit-down outside the factory gate. Two days later, the police told us not to sit there either, and forced us to leave.
“All regular workers went back to their rooms. We attended meetings whenever the union leaders called. We began a sit-down at the Collector’s office… the police took us all away in vehicles. Media news. Support by other unions… The strike lasted for a month. At the Labour Minister’s office in Gandhinagar between Tata Motors management and the factory union, the workers had only one demand: all 26 suspended workers should be reinstated. Decision of all-night meeting: On-duty inquiry of 13 in the factory, and off-duty inquiry of 13 outside the factory. Regular workers resumed work at the factory.
“A third-party inquiry officer, a lawyer’s decision: All 26+2 were guilty. At this, regular workers did not stop work; they continued working. Boycott of food in the canteen and black bands for a few days… Tata Motors management resumed talks, and after two-three months, all 28 workers were reinstated.
“Then the Tata Motors management began negotiations on the union demands charter. In October 2017, a 5-year (2016-2020) long management-union agreement was signed wherein there was a salary increase of ₹17,500 over five years.
“In the second management-union long-term agreement, the salary increase was ₹14,500 over 3 years 10 months. In the third 4 years long term agreement salary increase ₹17,000 by August 2028. Currently, 1,000 regular workers at Tata Motors Sanand factory receive monthly payments ranging from ₹40,000 to ₹50,000.
“From the wages of all workers, each month ₹200 is deducted for the bus, and ₹300 for the canteen.
“Currently, 2,000 ITI trainees at Tata Motors Sanand factory work at ₹14,000 per month.
“Currently, 1,000 Diploma Engineering Trainees (DETs) at Tata Motors Sanand factory work at ₹18,000 per month.
“Currently, 1,000 workers hired through a contractor company for production work at Tata Motors Sanand factory work at ₹15,000 per month.
“Currently, workers who have been hired through contractor companies for work outside direct production are: 250 security guards; 500 workers in three canteens; 500 housekeeping workers; 150 gardeners; loading-unloading workers; vendors’ workers; drivers & conductors of 40 buses; …
“In 2022, Tata Motors company acquired an adjacent Ford factory spread over 500 acres and was operational together with its manpower.
“I got married in 2012, and we have three children. I have built my own house in Sanand.”
*** Conversations with a factory worker who has worked both in Manesar and Sanand industrial areas on November 24, 2024 in Ahmedabad
Young factory worker with experience in Manesar and Sanand: “I was born in July 1997 in a village in Mainpuri district, Uttar Pradesh. My parents are peasants. I have four younger brothers and one sister. After studying at the village school up to class 5, I completed studies up to class 12 at a town three kilometers away.
“I enrolled in a fitter trade course at the government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Gaziabad. Along with two classmates, I got an apprenticeship at the Cooper Standard factory in the Industrial Model Town (IMT) Manesar. From 2012 to 2015, we completed the ITI course there.
“The three of us rented a room in Khoh village near IMT Manesar for ₹2,500 a month. We were paid ₹8,000 per month as apprentices. We worked only in the A-shift, from 6 AM to 2 PM. We had no Employee State Insurance (ESI) or Provident Fund (PF). Two of us were from the fitter trade and one from the electric trade, but all three were placed in the maintenance department.
“During the ITI course in 2014, in the Cooper Standard factory, while changing a die in the tool room, I lost more than a tip of my left index finger and fractured my right thumb. I was treated at Rockland Hospital in IMT, where I stayed for three days before being discharged with medications. After a month, I was declared fit. The company continued paying the ₹8,000 stipend and gave me ₹6,000 for expenses. The Cooper Standard company did not want to show the accident in the documents. I was offered regular employment after completing the ITI course if I did not demand compensation for the accident injury. I accepted the management offer.
“However, as soon as my ITI course was completed, I was employed as a worker hired through a contractor company in the Cooper Standard factory. My salary was ₹13,000 with ESI and PF provisions. I worked for three years as a worker hired through a contractor company in the Cooper Standard Manesar factory .
“In March 2019, I was transferred to Cooper Standard’s Sanand factory. At my own expense, I traveled to Ahmedabad to join the Sanand factory. I received a one-month training letter and was then made a regular worker. My salary was ₹11,000, and I shared a rented room with two other workers for ₹5,000 per month.
“After a month of working in the tool room, I was assigned to quality control on the production line. There were two shifts: 6:45 AM to 3:15 PM, and 3:15 PM to 11:45 PM. Sometimes, we worked 12-hour shifts or even 16-hour continuous shifts. Monthly overtime ranged from 100 to 150 hours. Regular workers were paid at the statutory double rate for overtime, but 300 workers hired through three contractor companies were paid overtime at single rate.
“The Cooper Standard factory’s sealing department had four lines: Tata, Ford, Fiat, and MG Motors. It produced rubber door seals, glass rings, and inner and outer glass belts. The fluid department made pipes for engines and airbags. Shifts were often extended to 12 or 16 hours.
“In early 2019, Cooper Standard management pressured workers to increase production and dismissed two trainees instead of making them regular workers. This led to discussions about forming a union during talks with Ford Sanand factory workers. Ford workers suggested meeting Vijay, a worker from General Motors. Five colleagues went to meet him.
“I was new and unaware of what was going on. On the day the five joined the union, 30 regular workers stopped working on the production lines and began a sit-down inside the factory at the security gate.
“At that time, regular workers had only one shift: starting at 6:45 in the morning. When around ten o’clock regular workers stopped work and began a sit-down inside the factory gate, I came to know about the union. On the second and third days also, we came to the factory and continued our sit-down inside.
“Thirty regular workers became union members. When Vijay, the union leader made a phone call to the factory manager, initially, the Saheb said there was no issue in the factory. But when names were mentioned, the manager admitted to the problem and agreed to reinstate one worker immediately and the other a few days later. Then the regular workers resumed work in the factory.
“After this, Cooper Standard management promised to increase wages to boost production but did not do so. All 80 trainee workers joined the union.
“The management started harassing the trainees and regular workers. Some trainees left the factory during their training, and some left the factory during their probation period. Some regular workers also quit their jobs.
“By the beginning of 2020, only 65 regular workers remained in the Cooper Standard Sanand factory, and of them 10-12 sided with the company. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the company paid wages to regular workers. Those who were in Sanand started going to the factory in May, and normal production resumed on June 1-2, 2020.
“Cooper Standard, a global company headquartered in the USA, had 7 factories in India: two in Chennai, and one each in Pune, Manesar, Bawal, Sahibabad, and Sanand. In June 2020, SFC Solutions, a global company headquartered in Europe, purchased all seven factories of Cooper Standard in India.
“The new company, SFC Solutions, immediately terminated one regular worker on December 21, 2020, and handed transfer letters to two. The one transferred to Bawal joined there. But the other who had been transferred to Chennai did not go there.
“To reinstate the terminated worker and revoke the suspension, the regular workers inside the factory put pressure on the management. However, the management refused. The company hired 25 bouncers and they began roaming inside the factory. The SFC Solutions management also called the police. A police vehicle was stationed at the gate, and police personnel started patrolling inside the factory.
“On December 25, 2020, the management told the regular workers working in the factory that it would not reinstate the terminated worker or revoke the suspension of the other worker. The workers were told that if they wanted to, they too could leave the factory. At this, 45 regular workers stopped working and immediately left the factory. And SFC Solutions management immediately suspended 19 of the 45.
“From December 25, 2020 we 45 remained outside the factory for 8 months. The suspended 19 workers received suspension allowance, while the remaining 26 received nothing. Production in the SFC Solutions continued with a dozen regular workers and 300+ workers hired through contractor companies.
“SFC Solutions management started sending letters to our homes, asking us to return to work. The management urged parents to convince their children.
“After eight months, except for the 9 suspended workers, 26 workers, along with 10 suspended ones, returned to work in the factory… And ten days later, the 9 suspended workers were terminated. I was one of them. Of those who were taken back in the factory, 4 were transferred to Chennai, and 6 to Bawal and Sahibabad factories.
“The demand letter submitted in 2019 after the union was formed is still pending… And the 26 union members still working in the SFC Solutions Sanand factory have not received any annual wage increment since 2019.
“The court cases of ten (1+9) terminated workers of SFC Solutions Sanand factory are still going on in the Labour Court in Ahmedabad. The matter has also been taken to the Gujarat High Court.
“I was working in IMT Manesar when I got married in 2016. I brought my wife to Sanand. After being terminated, I could not manage expenses and left her in my village. We have two children.
“Currently, the three of us live in a rented room in Sanand, paying ₹9,000 per month.”
*** Conversation with a Ahmedabad Textile Mills Worker
A man born in 1947, a textile mill worker in Ahmedabad from 1972 to 1997 lovingly took care of me during my November 22-25, 2024 stay in Ahmedabad. He refused to let me stay at night in a room near the place where conversations with factory workers were held. After the conversations, at night he took me 6-7 KM on his scooter to an old textile mill workers residential area.
In the remnants of chaals, the good friend lived in a chaal with his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren.
Similar to Bombay, Ahmedabad was a city of textile mills. And, like Bombay-Mumbai, in Ahmedabad also composite textile mills disappeared during the 1980s and early nineties. Only two composite textile mills, Lalbhai Group’s Arvind Mills and Reliance Group’s Vimal Mills had continued production in Naroda industrial area in Ahmedabad.
On the morning of November 25, 2024, the last day of my stay in Ahmedabad, I had a brief conversation with my friend’s son. He had joined Arvind Mills in 2003.
Arvind Mills Worker: “I was born in Ahmedabad in 1977. In 1997, after passing class ten examination, I made many attempts to join the army. I was not recruited.
“In 2003, I joined Lalbhai Group’s flagship Arvind Mills in Ahmedabad’s Naroda industrial area, as an apprentice. They paid ₹1,500 a month. I was in the weaving department as an apprentice. There were many jobs in the weaving department. I learned all of them. Apprenticeship was for a year.
“In 2004, I became a ‘Badli’ (replacement) worker. Unlike earlier in the textile industry, Badli workers at Arvind Mills got 26 days of work in a month. The mill employed around 3,000 workers, and production stopped only for two days in a year. The mill operated 24/7, with weekly holidays on different days.
“In the weaving department, there were 350 workers across three shifts. Everyone had the statutory Employees State Insurance (ESI) and Provident Fund (PF). The air-jet machines were used, and one worker operated ten looms. There were 160 looms in Arvind Mills. In a shift, there were 16 weavers and 4 relievers. The weaving department had four sections.
“My first job was as an unskilled worker. With a basic salary of ₹282, my monthly payment was ₹7,000-8,000. After 18 months, I was promoted to do utility work. I shifted beams, installed new beams, and did the cleaning. At that time, my monthly payment was ₹14,000-15,000.
“In 2011, I became a regular worker. The annual bonus was 8.33% of the salary, equivalent to one month’s pay. Initially, the bonus was ₹2,000, and it later was increased to ₹5,000.
“At Arvind Mills, the union recognised by the company was ‘Majoor Mahajan’ which was affiliated with the Congress Party’s central union INTUC. In an agreement in 2018, Majoor Mahajan and Arvind Mills management agreed to shut down the weaving department. We workers were told to opt for VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) with some extra money or be transferred to another department.
“My name appeared on the list for the bleaching and dyeing department, where chemical-related work was required. My father disapproved of me working with chemicals, so I resigned and settled my accounts. Including gratuity and the VRS amount, I received ₹350,000. My PF amount, after deducting the pension portion (8.33%), was also ₹350,000.
“After leaving Arvind Mills, I tried running a saree business from home for six months, but it didn’t work out. I paid an advance to buy a shop in Naroda, but just then my father fell ill … Luckily, I got my advance back.
“Since 2019, I’ve been working from home. A friend started giving me shirt-finishing work, which my wife and I handle. After school, our children also help us. During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, we faced difficulties for three months…”
