Trade unions of workers employed with National Textile Corporation (NTC) mills across the country have formed a “Save NTC” movement and plan to meet the Prime Minister and Textile Minister this month to demand reopening of the NTC mills.
C. Padmanabhan, coordinator of the “Save NTC”, said if their demands were not met, the union members would stage a protest in Delhi.
The unions have demanded reopening of all the NTC mills in the country as production has stopped at the units in March last year when a lockdown was declared to control the spread of COVID-19.
The workers should get full wages for the lockdown period, provide ₹ 2,000 crore (which is outstanding for NTC from different departments) for reopening and operation of the mills and should not lease out the mills to private players for conversion work.
AITUC leader M. Arumugam said the union leaders from different parts of the country would go to Delhi on December 6 and meet the MPs of all the States that have NTC units. They would also try to meet the Prime Minister and the Union Textile Minister and submit their demands.
“We met the Textiles Secretary earlier and he said the issue will be resolved in three months. But there is no progress and the mills remain shut. The 23 NTC mills employ almost 20,000 permanent workers,” he said.
