Comtrust Weaving Factory Workers’ Action Committee, an umbrella organisation of trade unions, has called a general strike and a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district on Wednesday, in protest against the delay in getting the assent of the President on the Bill passed by the Kerala Assembly for the takeover of the factory by the State government.
Parties’ support
E.C. Satheesan, general convener of the committee, said here on Monday that political parties such as Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India, Indian Union Muslim League, Janata Dal (Secular) and trade unions such as INTUC, AITUC, BMS, HMS, and STU, have expressed solidarity with the hartal. Hospitals, medical shops, milk distribution, media and marriage parties had been exempted from the hartal.
The Bill, passed by the Assembly in July 2012, had been awaiting the President’s assent for the past 11 months. As per the Bill, effective from February 2009, the Comtrust employees are eligible for the same amount of compensation as that of the employees of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation.
Not timely: CPI(M)
Meanwhile, the district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)] said here on Monday that the strike called on Wednesday by the Comtrust employees was not timely. It said that the employees had not been able to take all the unions into confidence and hence the strike could be counter-productive.
