Journalism of Courage
Despite the intervention of the labour commissioner,the stalemate between the Cummins India Limited (CIL),Kothrud,management and the employees union continues. Work at CIL had come to a standstill about two weeks ago.
The labour commissioner has directed the workers to join work, said Dinesh Castellino,vice president -legal and company secretary,CIL. We shall conduct an enquiry against the 11 union committee members for resorting to violence during the strike. They will remain suspended as long as the enquiry is on and further course of action will depend on the outcome of the enquiry, Castellino said.
We have demanded an undertaking from the employees union stating that they will not resort to violence and ensure a secure work environment. We are not keen to start functioning unless we are sure that the workers will not take to violence, he said.
However,the union has refused to give any such undertaking. The union will be left with no teeth if we sign such an undertaking, said Anand Chowgule,treasurer of Employees Union. He said that the union wants the company to pardon all the 11 union committee members and reinstate the workers.
The workers had held a massive demonstration outside the Dahanukar Colony facility on September 14 bringing all operations of the company to a standstill.
Meanwhile,the workers conducted a pooja outside the company gates on the occasion of Khande-Navmi on Sunday. The company gates have been locked for the past two weeks. Therefore,we performed the pooja outside the gate, Chowgule said.
