Major trade unions seek reopening of NTC mills in TN

In a memorandum to the Committee Chairman, Bhartuhari, who is on a two day visit to the region, they said only 23 National Textile Corporation mills, including seven in the state, out of the total of 124 nationalised in 1974, were functioning now. However these seven mills employing 13,000 workers, had remained closed since March last year due to the pandemic. Two of them had reopened recently, but workers were given only 50 per cent of the wages, the memorandum said. The unions claimed that NTC has adequate funds to run the mills as it had received Rs 1,500 crore from land given to construct Ambedkar memorial in Maharashtra and Rs 35 crore from the Puducherry government. In view of this the government should take steps to open the mills for the benefit of suffering workers, they said. 

Coimbatore Textile Workers Unions representatives, including INTUC general Secretary V R Balasundaram, AITUC general secretary and former CPI MLA, M Arumugham, handed over the memorandum to Bharthruhary In another memorandum, Arumugham urged the committee to take steps to increase wages of tea estate workers in Valparai in the district from Rs 335 to Rs 600, as their counterparts in neighbouring Kerala were getting Rs 403.