The State government has postponed the meeting scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the reopening of the century-old Comtrust Weaving Factory, which has been closed since 2009, even as there are reported attempts to split the former employees over taking forward the agitation.
The meeting had triggered a row after it was reported that the action committee formed by trade unions, which led the agitation to reopen the factory, had not been invited to it. Leaders of the All-India Trade Union Congress, Indian National Trade Union Congress, and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the three recognised unions in the now defunct factory, are part of the committee. It was the action committee which fought court cases for almost a decade and led the District Industrial Disputes Tribunal to issue an order to reopen the factory in February 2018. The committee leaders had also not attended another meeting of the former employees held in the city recently to discuss the future of the former employees.
Another agitation
It is learnt that the talks were scheduled at the behest of the Swatantra Thozhilali Union, affiliated to the Indian Union Muslim League. Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan was supposed to chair the meeting to which local MLAs, the Opposition leader and a section of trade union leaders were invited. The action committee, however, on Monday had decided to attend the meeting to thwart what they called “possible anti-labour decisions”. Its leaders were planning to launch another round of agitation by involving political parties if that happened. The reason for postponing the meeting was not immediately known.
P. Sivaprakash, functionary of the action committee, said, “It was not clear what message they wanted to convey by keeping us away from the meeting. We have reasons to believe that there was an attempt to split the employees as well.”