The Making of the Madras Working Class by D. Veeraraghavan

Author:D. Veeraraghavan [Veeraraghavan, D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LeftWord Books
Published: 2017-09-03T18:30:00+00:00

1. The Madras Labour Union was to have three subcommittees, one each for Buckingham Mills, Carnatic Mills and Choolai Mills.

2. Only workers were to be members and officials of the subcommittee.

3. The union executive was to have one committee member for every 100 members.

4. Outsiders in the Executive Committee were not to exceed one-third its total strength.

5. The number of B. and C. Mills employees on the Executive Committee was to exceed that of Choolai Mill workers.

6. There was to be no public criticism of the management when negotiations were in progress.

7. Assurance was to be given that sympathetic strikes would not be resorted to in support of Choolai Mills workers.

8. Representations to mill management may be made only by the concerned sub-committee although the outsider union official may accompany the sub-committee.

Recognition was accorded in April 1933 after the Madras Labour Union amended its constitution to be in line with the conditions laid down for recognition. The recognition did not however help in any way in strengthening the Madras Labour Union. The stooge union also continued to be a recognized union until its disappearance in 1944.

While all was quiet in the B. and C. Mills, a storm was raging in the Choolai Mills, with whose management the Madras Labour Union had very good relations.

Choolai Mills was an inefficiently managed unit. Discipline was lax. Pay and conditions of service were worse than the B. and C. Mills. This badly run enterprise could not withstand the adverse effects of depression and the management tried to pass the burden on to the workers.

In August 1927, they introduced the piece work system in the spinning and carding departments. The workers complained that they got lesser wages than before. The management argued that the reduction of wages was due to poor outturn of work. The two parties accused each other of cheating. The company then tried to introduce the two-loom system, with 50 per cent extra pay for looking after a second loom. They also increased the piece rate by 10 per cent provisionally for six months to allay the discontent in the spinning and carding departments. The workers were not satisfied. The two-loom system was opposed. It was contended that bad mixing of cotton, poor thread, non-supply of rewound weft, etc., made it very difficult to manage more than one loom. The weavers alone struck work on August 17, 1928, but returned to work the next day when the management agreed to enhance the extra pay to 60 per cent and to attend to the other complaints.87

An expert committee was set up in January 1929 consisting of the Government textile expert, Mr. Amalsad, the Manager of Carnatic Mills, Mr. Hargreaves, and an industrialist, V. Radhakrishnan to go into the issues relating to the two-loom system. This committee made many recommendations of a technical nature to assure work of better quality and less strain. It also suggested an extra pay of 80 per cent. The union welcomed the report of the committee. The management rejected

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