Agitating workers of Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) Ltd on Monday held Director, Marketing and Production, Rana S Chakraborty captive for two hours when the latter tried to convince them to end the strike in the interest of the company. The workers are protesting to get their seven-month salary dues.
The incident took place in the morning inside the Heavy Machine Tool Plant (HMTP) of the HEC when Chakraborty was asking workers to co-operate saying that December is the production month and 11 days of this month has passed without any work.
“As Chakroborthy requested, workers held him hostage inside the plant from 9 am to 11am. The Director, Production and Marketing remained in the captivity of agitating workers,” an HEC insider said.
The General Secretary of HEC Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Ramshanker Prasad, said that the workers got agitated as the director had come to convince them to start working accepting a salary of 15 days today and promised a salary of 15 days on the last day of the month.
“The workers were of the opinion that this payment could have been paid 11 days ago when they proceeded on strike,” Prasad said.
The strike called by workers of HEC, demanding a due salary continued on the 12th consecutive day on Monday. Just three days earlier on Tuesday, acting CMD, Nalin Singhal, had returned to Delhi from HEC without a second round of talks which was slated on Thursday with the union leaders.
“Singhal failed to honour his own words. After promising a second round of talks yesterday after lunch, he took off for New Delhi. He did not act like a senior officer of a company like HEC. He is an escapist and weak officer and he could not solve the problem of the workers,” a worker union Leader said.
During the strike, a Union president made a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi viral on social media. In the video, Modi is heard expressing his concern over the plight of HEC and talking big for making it a profit-making unit to save the employment of thousands if he voted to power. In the video, he is sharing his experience of saving a government-run fertilizer company of Gujarat.
The first round of meeting between Singhal and Union Leaders started at 1pm and ended at 3pm. During the meeting, Singhal requested the Union leaders to extend their co-operation to end the strike saying that the company is passing through a tough phase.
Talking to the trade Union leader, Singhal had agreed to take care of the canteen allowance and school fee of the employees but the Union leaders stuck to their demands of salary payment. They were of the opinion that the workers should be paid one month current and one month due salary but till the end of first round the CMD did not agree.
But before the second round of talk could take place Singhal returned to Delhi which created a matter of concern for the workers of the company.