In a cascading effect of the Northbrook Jute Mill episode, where the CEO was lynched by a group of workers on the mill premises, lockouts were declared in at least five other mills, throwing nearly 25,000 workers out of employment .
The Chief Executive Officer (works) of Northbrook died on Sunday after he was attacked by workers who were agitating against a management proposal to cutback working hours due to paucity of orders.
Amid fears of recurrence of such incidents, mill owners began shutting their gates on workers between June 15 and 18, and work suspension was declared in at least five mills. There are 52 jute mills employing around 2.5 lakh persons in the State.
Past chairman of the Indian Jute Mills Association, Sanjay Kajaria, said the unrest was spreading elsewhere too as the industry was reeling under paucity of orders for its main product — gunny bags.
The State government has ordered police patrolling in the areas where jute mills are located (mainly along the Hooghly river and in the North 24 Parganas district), especially if they sense any tension in the area.
Amal Sen, general secretary of Bengal Jute Mills Workers Union, said while the Northbrook incident was unfortunate, the fact remained that mill owners have been resorting to curtailing work hours, citing paucity of orders.
“The Centre and the State government were equally responsible for this turn of events,” he said, charging the previous UPA government with taking measures to help the synthetic packaging industry and the State government with allowing matters to drift. Congress leader Manas Bhunia told reporters outside the Legislative Assembly that the State government should immediately convene a meeting to discuss the sector’s problems and send a high-level delegation to the Union Commerce and Textile Minster to sort out matters.
