Textile Industry

In refusing to give permission to textile mills in Mumbai to sell their land the Maharashtra government gives the impression that it is being sympathetic to the cause of the mill workers, but actually it is pandering to the builders' lobby. The take-no-decision policy of the state government does not mean, however, that changes will not take place, albeit haphazardly and clandestinely. Based on recent developments, some likely scenarios are sketched here.

Bombay Textile Strike 1982-83 by H van Wersch; Oxford University Press, THE strike of textile workers in Bombay during 1982-83 has few parallels in the annals of the trade union movement anywhere in the world considering the number of striking workers and the duration of the strike. Yet, as the blurb of H van Wersch's book rightly observes, it has not received as much serious study as one would expect from trade union historians and social scientists. Perhaps the very size and duration of the conflict deterred scholars from launching upon a detailed exploration of it. Ultimately, it was a foreign researcher who undertook the daunting task and it is to his credit that he has done such a thorough job of it.

Even the most knowledgeable men in the textile industry and trade have often wondered at the emerging textile situation and have been hard put to offer a convincing explanation for the declining fortunes of an industry catering to the basic need of a fast-growing population in a developing economy with a completely sheltered market. This is mainly because the textile scene has generally presented a curious mixture of many diverse, odd elements. 

Two inferences seem to follow from the data on industrial disputes published in the January 1984 issue of Indian Labour Journal First, throughout the period 1974 to 1982, the time lost per industrial dispute and the time lost per worker were several times more in the case of lock-outs than in that of strikes. In other words, lockouts by managements were of much longer duration than strikes by workers. One likely explanation may be that owners of out-dated plant and machinery resort to lock-outs either as a step towards closing down their units or as a pressure tactic for extracting more aid and concessions from the government. 

DCM, formerly Delhi Cloth and General Mills Company, has suffered a setback m its working during the year ended June 1983., Gross profit has shrunk to Rs 12.75 crore from previous year's Rs 15,06 crore despite increase in turnover from Rs 398 crore to Rs 432 crore. After depreciation and taxation, there is a net loss of Rs 3.17 crore against a net profit of Rs 3.50 crore previously. Depreciation has uniformly been calculated on building and plant and machinery on 'straight line' basis and on other assets on 'written-down value' basis. The resultant excess depreciation provision of previous'years amounting to Rs 16.35 crore has been written back. This hfcs enabled the company to announce an unchanged 15 per cent dividend.