A report by Kamgar Ekta Committee correspondent
Once again, the government machinery, in the service of capitalist class moves in to try to suppress heroic struggle of thousands of contract workers working at the integrated steel plant in Hazira, Gujarat.
On Thursday 26th February morning, thousands of contract workers, employed by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), started their protest at the ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India) plant in Hazira near Surat. The protesting workers complained that when they were demonstrating they were manhandled by private security personnel deployed at the plant, following which the police were called in. They were brutally lathi charged and more than 70 tear gas shells were launched within 30 minutes by the police force which swiftly arrived at the site. It is reported that 46 workers have been arrested and FIRs with charges like attempted murder have been slapped on them.
These workers began their protest demonstration since their just demands which they have been raising for a long time are just being ignored by L&T. Their just demands include:
- Reduction of duty hours from 12 hours to 8 hours, citing the high-pressure nature of the job
- Increase in daily pay from the current meagre pay of just Rs. 600 to Rs. 700 for a 12-hour shift
- Overtime payment at double rate from the current single rate
For raising these just demands they were brutally attacked and will continue to be harassed.
AM/NS India is a joint venture between big capitalist group Arcellor Mittal and Japan’s Nippon Steel. Hazira integrated steel plant is supposed to be the biggest in India with a production capacity of around 9–9.6 million tons per annum (MTPA). AM/NS has engaged L&T for construction activities related with further expansion of the plant.
Especially when such big capitalist group owned companies are involved, it is no wonder that police and government agencies move in swiftly. They move in swiftly—not to enforce labour laws, but to restore “law & order”. And under the rule of capitalist class, “law & order” means uninterrupted production, secured assets, and subdued labour. Lives, dignity, and rights of workers do not count!
The workers protesting at Hazira are overwhelmingly migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Odisha. Such migrant workers are always very vulnerable and in the eyes of capitalist class, they are disposable – welcome when silent, expendable when assertive. Rising living costs, punishing shifts, and opaque overtime practices continue unchecked. Dialogue collapses because it never truly exists. Coercion steps in—efficiently, decisively, without remorse. For corporations, the government machinery behaves like a partner; for the workers, it is an oppressive enforcer.
This is the case with crores of migrant workers, working as contract workers across the country, and shedding their sweat and blood for creating wealth which should actually belong to them and to all the working people of the country. Each time, for all such workers, the script remains unchanged: police deployment, prohibitory orders and pressure to disperse. Employers escape scrutiny. Structural exploitation continues uninterrupted. Workers’ anger is treated not as evidence of super-exploitation, but as a public nuisance to be cleared from the streets.
It is important to note that the Gujarat government recently amendment the Factories Act. Daily working hours have been now stretched from nine to twelve. Overtime limits have been expanded from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five hours per quarter. The government, of course, justified this as “flexibility.” This is not reform. It is the formal legalization of super exploitation that already operates informally. No wonder that in response to this agitation, in a press release, L&T company officials stated that they would implement all the rules of the Gujarat Government’s Labour Code with immediate effect once the policy was implemented.
This heroic struggle by workers working in AM/NS India is indeed very inspiring. There is absolutely no doubt that it will inspire all the working people of our country. It deserves unequivocal support of all the working people of our country, whether they are permanent workers or contract workers, whether they are workers of public sector enterprises or private sector enterprises. It is also equally necessary to unitedly condemn the government machinery which in the service of some of the biggest capitalist companies is trying to crush this struggle.