ALAPPUZHA: The Labour Department have postponed the meeting to be convened on Monday to settle the strike called by coir workers in the district to September 14. The union leaders said that the Labour Department postponed the meeting without citing any reason.
The coir workers have decided to intensify the protests and the joint action council will begin agitation in front of the collectorate from Tuesday. As many as 12,000 coir workers in Cherthala and Ambalappuzha taluks will begin indefinite protests.
The strike is being conducted by the joint action council of the coir workers, led by the CITU, the AITUC, the NTUC, the BMS and the UTUC. The allied industries of the coir sector kick-started protests from Monday.
Coir Shearing Factory Owner Association convened a meeting and had demanded wage hike for employees under their factory. The joint action council also put forwarded demands to increase the minimum wage of all coir workers. The basic pay of a coir worker is `360 and the action council demands it to be raised to `480 and to fix the coir workers pension as ` 1000. They are also demanding an increase in the price of all the coir products, protection for the employment of the coir workers and to provide working capital of `7.5 lakh to coir co-operative societies once in two years.