Hold massive meeting demanding reinstatement
TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CORTALIM: For the 600-odd workers of Zuari Industries Limited (ZIL), who have been out of work for the last five months, May Day was just like any other day for them without significance or relevance.
The workers who have been picketing outside the company premises for some five months on Wednesday converged and held a massive meeting at Zuari Nagar under the banner of Goa Kranti Sena Mazdoor Sangh demanding their reinstatement in the company.
Speaking on the occasion, Sancoale Sarpanch Ramakant Borkar regretted that nothing had been done for the workers for the last five months.
Borkar said Cortalim constituency has an important place in the Goa cabinet by way of Environment Minister Alina Saldanha who should have been instrumental in solving this crisis. “But it is very said that they have to protest and organise rally on daily basis demanding their reinstatement,” Borkar lamented.
Pointing at South ZP chief Nelly Rodrigues who was seated beside him on the dais, Borkar recalled that they had contested for the Cortalim Assembly polls. “Had anyone of us to win the election, this situation would not have arisen,” Borkar said.
Borkar appealed to Saldanha to take up the workers’ cause with the chief minister to bring about a quick end to the crisis.
In his address, Sangh President Pratap Mardolkar complimented the workers for staying united despite attempts to break their unity. He assured that he would fight for justice and exhorted the workers to stay united which, he said, was need of the hour.
“There have been numerous attempts to buy people out, but the management has not succeeded,” claimed Mardolkar.
In her speech, Nelly Rodrigues made a fervent appeal to both the workers and the management to come to a negotiating table and arrive at a settlement. She reminded the Zuari Industries that it was indeed very sad that workers of a prominent and old company in Goa had to come on the streets.
“Zuari Management should not forget that the workers who are the wheels of industries have played a vital role in building their empire and that they should not be forgotten now,” said Rodrigues.
The workers committee Vice President Manuel Silva told Herald that they would not allow the company to hire workers from other States. There are some workers who have put in 20 to 30 years of service and they cannot be simply sidelined to make way for outside workers.
Silva warned that if workers from other states like Bihar, UP who the management wants to hire are allowed, then there was every possibility of another slum coming up like in Zuari Nagar.
Earlier, the workers organised a massive rally outside the company premises in a show of their strength.
