KANNUR: Even as the LDF government takes earnest efforts to create an investor-friendly image for Kerala in order to attract more entrepreneurs, the CPM’s workers union, CITU, continues to dent it. On Thursday, Shree Porkkali Steels, a hardware shop at Madayi, downed shutters following stiff resistance from the CITU ever since its opening two months ago.
Shop owner T V Mohanlal said he faced CITU’s wrath after he decided to run the hardware shop with his own workers. “I have approached the court to create a conducive atmosphere for me to run my business in a building which I had taken on rent. If I get a favourable decision, I’ll restart my business. I have no other option,” said Mohanlal.
“I had stocked materials worth Rs 60 lakh, but could not sell even a single item from that due to the strike by CITU in front of my shop,” said Mohanlal. “CITU’s protest is not against the shop, but against the denial of jobs to the workers in the area,” said the union’s Madayi area president I V Sivaraman. CITU continued its strike in front of the closed shop on Thursday too.
Following similar kind of protest by CITU, SR Associates at Mathamangalam, owned by Rabeeh Muhammad, had to be closed down. The labour issue was later resolved, thanks to Labour Minister V Sivankutty’s intervention. In another incident, Afsal Kuzhikkadan, who was beaten up by CITU workers for buying materials from SR Associates, too had closed down his shop at Mathamangalam.
Trade union members disrupt work in Palazhi
Eighteen days after a shop at Perambra was forced to shut down following the stir by trade unions, yet another firm is facing the heat in the district. Clash erupted between headload workers and the staff of Venus Enterprises at Palazhi, Kozhikode on Thursday over hiring of workers.