Arzan pointed me to this post on the newly launched Mumbai Metblogs, talking of the plight of some Akbarallys employees who one day found that they did not have jobs any more, because the branch shut shop.
This is a fairly common story. I have some personal experience of that. In 1993, I went home from my hostel for the weekend, to find that my mother no longer had a job as her company had shut down. It was entirely expected – the company had been in trouble for years before that, but it was still a shock when it happened.
The labour laws did not help. The unions could not help, the courts would not help. I’ve explained why here. Labour laws and the courts matter only if you care to keep your company running.
My mom got a new job some eight months later. She’s still working there, but hopefully not for long. The company has sold out its land and a shopping mall will come up in its place…
Your personal experience seems to have made you take a moderate stance on this.
Unions in India have been indeed taken over by gangsters and have only had bad effects for workers and industry. In fact, the unionised workers had become a kind of aristocracy with the union leaders being parasites on both the workers and the industrialists. In India, it went to that extreme.
On the other hand, in the West it went to the other extreme with professional union-busting using sleaze tactics which led to the demise of unions. What followed was the destruction of social benefits, outright theft of pension benefits, social disharmony and even violence.
It seems the clock is turning back. I am not a big fan of unions but if investors can organise themselves for common gain then workers should also be free to organise themselves.
There is a middle ground everywhere. Too much of anything is just bad.
What moderate stance have I taken on this?
Oh no no! You are an extremist.
Have fun!
Sir, in my humble opinion in the fight between industrialists and the trade union wallahs it’s the common public that suffers and the hardest hit are the workers. they have no where to go and left lurching without payments for days together and these folks are not fat salary earners but economically some where in the middle class or lower middle class who depends on their monthly incomes to earn a respectful bread and butter.
the sidpute is claimed to be solved
http://mumbai.metblogs.com/archives/2006/04/akbarallys_workers_dispute_fin.phtml