. S trikes and u nions In response to harsh working conditions, sometimes workers went on strike. In a strike, workers do not go to work. In a lockout, the management shuts the gate and prevents workers from coming.
To call a strike is a difficult decision as managers may try to use substitute labour. Workers also find it hard to sustain themselves without wages. Let us look at one famous strike, the Bombay Textile strike of , which was led by the trade union leader, Dr. Datta Samant, and affected nearly a quarter of a million workers and their families.
The strike lasted nearly two years. The workers wanted better wages and also wanted the right to form their own union. Slowly after two years, people started going back to work because they were desperate. Nearly one lakh workers lost their jobs and went back to their villages, or took up casual labour, others moved to smaller towns, like Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Icchalkaranji, to work in the powerloom sector.
Mill owners did not invest in machinery and modernisation. Today, they are trying to sell off the mill land to real estate dealers to build luxury apartments, leading to a battle over who will define the future of Mumbai – the workers who built it or the mill owners and real estate agents. During – , due to the COVID- pandemic, hundreds and thousands of IT sector workers worked from home. Find out the differences and commonalities between home-based work and those who work from home.