C. Palaniswamy, head of the power loom unit weavers in Coimbatore and Tiruppur, responded to a request for comment by saying, “As of today, the strike is on its fourth day, costing Rs35 crore every day. The strike has also hampered the production of 1 crore meters of fabric.” Power looms are located in the Palladam and Somannur regions of the two districts, where there is the highest number of units, employing two lakh people directly and another three lakh indirectly.
The workers are in a rut since nearly none of them are familiar with any other professions. For a pay increase, they had gone on strike in January. However, the action was called off in March. The manufacture of textiles on power looms has also been halted by the rise in cotton and yarn costs since May. Because shutting down the power looms implies no jobs and hence no income, the current strike will also have an immediate impact on the workers.
In an interview with IANS, Palladam power loom weaver Shanmuganathan T. remarked, “When the strike would finish is uncertain to me. In January 2022, we began going on strikes to demand pay increases. These strikes lasted for two months before being ended in March. The increase in cotton and yarn costs forced the closure of the power looms, and now there is another stoppage as a result of the increased electricity tariff. All of these are directly harming the employees, and since we have been educated exclusively for this, we are at a loss for what to do.”
According to him, the new electricity rate rise would result in a greater burden of between Rs8,000 and Rs9,000 per power loom unit each month, which is a significant increase in the eyes of power loom weavers. The power loom weavers assert that their workload has been made more difficult by the increase in fixed costs exceeding 750 units of electricity per unit.
IIFL Customer Care Number 
IIFL Capital Services Support WhatsApp Number
