PROJECT REPORT

I/O PSYCHOLOGY

LABOR UNREST AND STRIKES IN INDIA

NAME- RAIYAN KHAN

ROLL NO- 1937

CLASS- TYBA

2020-21
 INDEX
SERIAL NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.
1 INTRODUCTION 1
2 AIMS&OBJECTIVES 2
3 METHODOLOGY 3
4 CASES IN DETAIL 4-8
5 SUMMARY 9-10
6 BIBLIOGRAPHY 11
INTRODUCTION/ ABSTRACT
Labor means workforce and manpower needed to complete tasks in return for wages and salary.
There are numerous organizations, industries, factories which need manpower for production of
goods and services in the economy of the world. There are types of labor such as skilled and
unskilled labor as well as contract based laborers. Labor is one of the four factors needed for
production. Labor plays an important role in the Indian economy as it is second largest force in
the world after China. The unorganized sector in India is on a large scale level and majority of
laborers are a part of unorganized sector, approximately 80-90% of workers being a part of it,
which means mere 10-20% work in organized sectors, basically the government, public and
private registered organizations. According to the labor institute of India, 55% are contract based
laborers. Labor strikes are a combined refusal to work under conditions wanted by the
employers. Strike is one of the oldest methods used by workers to protest against the authorities.
The reasons behind most of the strikes are demand for better wages and improved working
conditions. Some illegal strikes take place because of political interference and at times because
particular working union wants to show support towards other striking unions. Strikes cause
economic burden on the industry as the production stops and it’s even more severe on the part of
the workers as they will not be paid during the strike and there’s also a risk of losing jobs if the
industry hires new workers or if the permanent employees do not take part in the strike.
AIMS & OBJECTIVES

The aim of this case study is to highlight some of major strikes taken place in the Indian
industries. To know what exactly happened during these strikes, types of conditions which made
workers to take the step of calling a strike, the working conditions of labor in these industries,
the results of these strikes. Further objectives are to know about the labor laws formed by the
Indian government to protect the workers, if the labor laws are implemented correctly, what kind
of response and approach do companies have against the striking employees. A detailed studied
of these strikes will help us in knowing the struggles of the workers working in these industries,
how it shaped some of the labor laws and the outcomes.
METHODOLOGY
The methodology chosen for this project is the case study method. . The case study method helps
in gaining knowledge about the past events and records related to the topic. Therefore, will be
making use of such cases related to labor unrest and strikes in the Indian industries, organizations
and factories. A minimum of 5 cases will be included to highlight the same.
CASES IN DETAIL
CASE NO.-1- BOMBAY TEXTILE MILLS WORKERS
STRIKE
The city of Bombay had around 60 textile mills, of which 47 were privately owned and 13 were
owned by the government. The mill workers had several grievances such as low wages, the
system of ‘badli’ which means temporary workers, a huge number of laborers were working
under this temporary system, and there were issues regarding the annual bonus payment to the
workers. The daily wage of 40 rupees was set in 1962 and had no change in it whatsoever in last
20 years, monthly income of these workers was around 600-700 rupees and for temporary
workers which constituted to be around 40% of the workers had even more low income of
around 200-400 rupees, 45% of these temporary workers could not even get a permanent
position in the mills though they had worked for more than 2 years at those mills. The
bonus amount was different at every mill. According to the Payment of Bonus ordinance 1980,
a minimum of 8.33% to maximum of 20% and bonus was linked with productivity rather than
profits, but certain employers were unable to understand the nature of this bonus payment.
‘Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh’ (RMMS) was a recognized national union for mill workers. In
September 1981, the workers called for a one day strike and a few weeks later the RMMS and
MOA presented an agreement which would cost the private mills nearly rupees 20.6 crores and
the 13 mills under the national textile corporation (NTC) will be paying an amount of rupees 2.4
crores in bonuses. The workers of several mills were still unhappy with the decision and called
for a strike on 22nd October 1981 but this strike wasn’t given much attention by the mill owners.
On 30th of October, Datta Samant found the Maharashtra Girni Kamgar Union (MGKU),
striking workers wanted him to be the leader as he had led few labor movements and was
successful in it. The GKS affiliated with the Shiv Sena political part also supported the workers.
The demands of MGKU were increase in wages, higher bonus, permanency of the temporary
workers, allowances for leaves and payment of house rent. The Mill Owners association of
Bombay quashed all the demands describing them as unacceptable. On 18th January 1982,
around 2.5 lac mill workers called for an indefinite strike, the strike lasted for around 18
months, the result of this huge strike was not really fruitful for the workers as most of the mills
closed down due to the strike, around 1.5 lac workers were left unemployed by the end of
the strike, majority of the workers were of migratory population and therefore left Mumbai and
returned back to their hometowns. The textile industry of Mumbai came to an end.
CASE NO.-2- RELIANCE TEXTILE INDUSTRY STRIKE AT
NARODA, GUJARAT
Reliance textile industry has a plant at Naroda in Gujarat with 6000 workers working at the
plant. In the year 2012, the reliance textile company’s net profit had increased to USD 3.6 billion
dollars and according to the World Bank, it was said to be India’s most modern textile complex.
The working conditions of the laborers at these plant was described as exploitative by the
workers themselves as the company had a growth of ten folds in last 20 years but the wages were
still the same during this period. The permanent workers earned around 5000—6000 rupees
per month, contract based workers merely got rupees 85-100 per day. There was no legality
of the payments made to these workers in the form of pay slips but rather a voucher was signed.
A fine was imposed on late entry and overtime wasn’t paid in a proper manner. The 2 workers
union affiliated with plant were said to be acting more as an ‘anti-workers union’. They
acted as the ‘extended office’ of the company’s management and to be involved in corrupt
practices. Deals were brokered between the union and management every 3 years but workers
were kept out of it and in the last deal these unions agreed to giving no tea breaks to the workers
and hence the workers used to drink tea when they use to go to the washroom or at the working
place which had unhygienic surroundings. On 2nd of February 2012, the workers called for a
strike during the second shift. Approximately, 1100 permanent workers and 4000 contract based
workers formed a new independent union under the name ‘Reliance Employees Union’ it was
not officially registered or affiliated. The 16 point demand list by the workers included 60%
wage hike for the permanent employees, 20% increase in bonus, regularization of contract
based workers and their daily wage increase to rupees 200, no fine on late entry, overtime
to be paid at double rate, a scheduled tea break, end to the workers harassment by the union
and the management and assurance that no worker will lose his job after the strike ends. The
company deemed the demands as ridiculous and said the workers are only miffed because they
aren’t allowed to carry mobile phones into the factory. The strike was declared illegal and
police force was used to move out the workers from the factory’s gate. Further new
temporary employees were hired during strike and rupees 400-500 was paid them as a
daily wage as the plant was working on a low workforce capacity. The workers continued their
strike for a few days and without any political, NGO support or any other outside support the
strike couldn’t last for a long time
CASE NO.-3- WORKERS STRIKE AT THE MARUTI SUZUKI
FACTORY, GURUGRAM (GURGAON)
Maruti Suzuki, an automobile company has one of its factory’s at Gurugram earlier known as
Gurgaon. During the 90s, there was a struggle at the factory for a union recognition. First the
HMS union was formed but it was dissolved as the management refuse to it give it recognition.
Then another union was formed by the name Maruti Udyog Employees Union (MUEU), this
union had faced problem for recognition too but with support of the United Front Government it
finally got recognized and established at the Gurugram plant. In the year 2000, the production
had increased around to 400% but the employment was only 65%. The workers had a higher
workload but their productivity bonuses were cutoff. In October 2000, the union called for a
tool down strike for 2 hours in each shift for 9 days, which was accompanied by a hunger
strike. The management deployed police after the 9 days strike at the gate of factory, only letting
in those workers who were willing to sign a ‘good conduct undertaking’ which said the
workers would not engage in strikes or other similar activities. There were 4800 permanent
workers ad out of them 600 decided to the sign the undertaking, other workers decided to
assemble outside the factory everyday for 2 months, but the union ended the strike and accepted
the changes in the productivity bonus and the management decided to take back the good
conduct undertaking. In September 2001, the company management announced a Voluntary
Retirement Scheme and the union was against it, the struggle against this lasted till 2005, but
had to finally accept it. More than 2000 employees were replaced by the contract workers.
MUKU union formed by the employees who had signed the good conduct undertaking replaced
the MUEU. There were several strikes at different Maruti Suzuki plants in further years.
CASE NO.-4- WORKERS STRIKE AT THE HITACHI SOLUTIONS
PLANT AT KADI, GUJARAT
Hitachi home & life solutions India Ltd is a subsidiary brand of Hitachi Appliances incorporated,
a Japanese company. It opened a plant for manufacturing air conditioners at Kadi in Gujarat in
August 2009. The allegations made by the workers against the company were of exploitation in
forms of disparity of wages between the contract workers and the permanent workers. There
were around 500 contract workers earning rupees 5000-8000 per month for a 12 hour shift
per day, whereas the permanent workers earned 15000-20000 for the same work time and
job. On 4th of July 2012, the workers took a rally for a protest against all this exploitation to a
registered office of the company. The strike lasted for 27 days. The responded to this by
declaring the strike illegal and firing all the 500 contract workers by saying that these were
only summer recruits and already had a fixed term of work period, they further went on to
hire new 300 contact based workers. The spokesperson of the company gave a statement, “we
fulfill all the requirements of the state government when it comes to hiring workers, we do not
discriminate between workers”.
Case no.-5- TRADE UNIONS STRIKES AGAINST THE STATES
FOR SUSPENSION AND VIOLATION OF LABOR LAWS
The first lockdown period in India due to covid-19 was enforced from March 2020 to June 2020.
Some Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tripura and few more were
found to be suspending, violating and tweaking major labor laws to run economic activities. The
Uttar Pradesh government passed an ordinance titled Uttar Pradesh Temporary Exemption for
certain labor laws to facilitate economic activities. The ordinance was responsible for making 38
labor laws defunct in UP for 1000 days, section 5 of the Payment Wages Act 1934;
Construction Workers Act 1996, Compensation Act 1993, and the Bonded Labor Act 1976
were functional. The labor laws which were suspended were as follows, Trade Union Act,
Industrial Disputes Act, Act on Occupational Health and Safety, Contract Labor Act,
Interstate Migrant Labor Act, Equal Remuneration Act, Maternity Benefit Act. Further 8
states went on to increase working hours from 8 hours to 12 hours a day which was a
violation of the Factories Act. In response to all these suspensions and violations of the labor
laws, the 10 major national level trade unions of India decided to call for a hunger strike on
22nd of May 2020 at the Gandhi Samadhi at New Delhi and in all the other states at the
same time and a decision to take the matter to International Labor Organization was also
made by the central trade unions. The demands kept by these unions were as follows, immediate
relief to the stranded workers for safe reaching to their homes, universal coverage of ration
distribution, food to all, cash transfer to all the unorganized labor force whether registered,
unregistered or self employed. The 10 central trade unions who were jointly against this
included INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and
UTUC.
SUMMARY
The details of all the cases included related to the topic of labor unrest and strikes helped us to
learn a great deal of knowledge about how and why these labor strikes place. All the cases have
shown how laborers and workers are treated unfairly at the factories and even at the most reputed
and rich ones too. Workers deserve an appropriate pay for their working hours. The working
conditions for the workers should be favorable. Imposing fines for late entry, not giving bonuses
is a violation of the labor laws. Throughout every case in the project we saw gross violation of
labor laws by the companies and if the workers strike then they are most often not successful as
the companies either fire them or the workers accept the terms as they want to earn a living for
themselves and their families. The companies use money and political influence which help them
in flouting the labor laws. Though the labor laws exist to protect the workers, the poor
implementation of these laws is seen throughout the cases. The corrupt practices in the trade
unions and government as play a major role in the exploitation of the workers. It can be said that
laborers often choose to strike as they feel companies might accept their terms because if they
stop working the company faces loss for each day they strike, longer the strike is equal to more
losses for the company but it doesn’t turn out to be that way. Let us look at the summary of the
cases.

The one common link found in all cases was low wages given to the workers in a plant or a
factory. The 1st case about the Bombay textile mill workers strike which was the biggest
strike in the history of India. It had a huge economic and political effect over Mumbai and
India too. The leader of the strike Datta Samant who was a doctor by profession decided to fight
for these mill workers, he already had a reputation to fight for workers of other factories, though
initially he refused to fight for the textile mill workers due to the legal reason of textile mills
being under the BIR Act. Though the strike of 1982 was a failure and lead to economic downfall
and over 1.5 lac workers losing job people still supported him as he went on to become a
member of the Indian parliament. Workers in these textile mills suffered a lot physically,
financially and mentally with debts and no place to stay most of them headed back to their
hometowns. The city of Bombay which was known to be an industrial city later went on to
become commercial city as all the mills shut down and later went on to become malls,
restaurants etc.

The 2nd case shows how in the reliance textile plant, the permanent and contract based workers
earned very low wages though the company had high profits and the company’s approach
towards the striking workers was to replace them with less contract workers and paying them
higher wages highlights an exploitative nature towards the workers.

The 3rd case at the Maruti Suzuki factory at Gurgaon about the higher workload and cutting off
the productivity bonuses is one of the first in the Indian automobile industry. The union had to
accept the company terms as their hunger strike failed to make an impact but in the following
year when company announced the Voluntary Retirement Scheme it led to further struggles for
the workers and eventual loss of job of over 2000 employees and replacement by the contract
workers. This case actually became a model and an example for other companies for the
categorization of the workers in the automobile industry but it was unfavorable towards
the workers.

The 4th case is also similar where the contract workers have low wages though have the same
working hours. The company’s approach of firing these workers and citing the reason that they
were just summer recruits was a violation of the labor laws.

The 5th case is the most recent one. The whole of India into a lockdown but state governments
wanting to run the economic activities and suspending and violating labor laws shows how
workers are treated in the most testing times ever faced by the world. A strike by the major
central trade unions highlights that the unions do care about the workers and won’t back down
against the exploitation. The case highlighted many labor laws in our country and the major trade
unions too.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Business Standard. 2021. Contractual workers at Hitachi’s Kadi plant on strike, take out rally. [online]
Available at: https://wap-business--standard-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/wap.business-
standard.com/article-amp/companies/contractual-workers-at-hitachi-s-kadi-plant-on-strike-take-out-rally-
112070400017_1.html?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQHKAFQArABIA%3D
%3D#aoh=16174595740862&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From
%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.business-standard.com%2Farticle%2Fcompanies
%2Fcontractual-workers-at-hitachi-s-kadi-plant-on-strike-take-out-rally-112070400017_1.html

Encyclopedia Britannica. 2021. Strike | industrial relations. [online] Available at:

Notes, R., 2021. Workers’ Strike in Reliance Textile Industries, Naroda plant, Ahmedabad – A Report.
[online] Radical Notes. Available at https://www.google.com/amp/s/radicalnotes.org/2012/02/08/workers-
strike-in-reliance-textile-industries-naroda-plant-ahmedabad-a-report/amp/

Nowak, F., 2016. STRIKES AND LABOR UNREST IN THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY IN INDIA: THE
CASE OF MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LIMITED. 19th ed. [ebook] The journal of labor and society. Available
at:https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/mass/documents/publication
s/strikes-and-labour
unrest.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjd2vrprO7vAhWaXSsKHbjtA3AQFjAEegQIGhAC&usg=AOvVaw0VNqdYpnhK3
vsn-eX7GH3C

Salim Lakha (1988) Organized labor and militant unionism: The Bombaytextile workers' strike of 1982,
Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 20:2, 42-53, https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1988.10404447

The Wire. 2021. Unravelling the Build Up to Bombay's Textile Mill Strike of 1982. [online]
Available at:https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.thewire.in/article/books/mumbai-textile-mill-
workers-strike/amp

The Hindu. 2021. Trade unions to go on strike on May 22 to protest against labor laws suspension.
[online] Available at: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thehindu.com/news/national/trade-unions-to-go-
on-strike-on-may-22-to-protest-against-labour-laws-suspension/article31594022.ece/amp/