Unions dump cashew workers

Kollam: It is time private cashew workers think of having independent trade unions to protect their rights as the established trade unions have completely left them in the lurch, allegedly “match-fixing” protests against private owners.

The CITU was the first to back off from a massive movement against private cashew factories demanding their reopening. The remaining unions followed suit. With this, over two lakh employees and their families in Kollam alone are living in penury.

The Rs 11,000 crore cashew industry in the state is powered by 890 cashew factories in the district. A majority of these factories remain closed for over the last one year citing operational loss.

The situation turned worse with the government imposing minimum wages policy for the cashew workers in March 2015. The anti-people policy of the Central government by increasing import by nearly 10 per cent is also to be blamed as it affected small cashew processors, reducing their profit margin.

The jobless employees, despite several unrewarding protests, had conducted hunger strike led by Left trade unions on December 16. They demanded reopening the cashew factories. The reconciliation talks reached nowhere except for some 14 companies who agreed to open their factories after several round of negotiations.

The CITU allegedly “settled” the protests in front of private cashew factories after two rounds of talks with the Chief Minister, citing an agreement had been reached with the private owners after they received an “assurance” that the factories would be open “if” raw cashew is available by March 15.
No factory opening and no protests took place ever since.