a Palanpuri Jain Community which is known for their business acumen in Diamond Trading. Business understanding was in his blood. He knew the businesses and their practices intimately. He knew business finance well. Workers must work sincerely and well, and they must also get good wages was his approach. Many industrialists knew by experience that whatever commitment RJ made they were implemented on the side of workers. He used to ensure that. To lead workers into strike and if the matter deteriorates for long time, then not to know the way out was not his style. He knew what a company can afford to give what and his knowledge was not generally wrong. He was also well versed in the legal niceties in court appearances, *
T have entered into several agreements with such a senior and knowledgeable Union leader. The agreements were implemented on both sides. The only problem with him was that he expected that both Workers and Management must accept his decision or word as Final. Both workers and management must obediently follow his instructions. Workers were always happy to obey him as they were not interested in running their own Union and were happy to delegate their side in collective bargaining to him, and they were bound to get some extra benefits by following him and paying a paltry sum as Membership fee not only to him but also to other Unions as well. This is so because the one-sided legal framework is such that the agreements are to be implemented only by the Management.
This implicit requirement of obedience is difficult for the Employers or their representatives. Many industrialists treat an arrangement with a union as an easy way of buying industrial peace. In their view Union is a supplier of Industrial peace in the factory. Once you get along well with Shri Mehta, you do not have to bother about keeping scores of workers in your employment in discipline. Such owners find that a better option. Real problem comes before bigger units where the employer is a company. Identity of owner(s) is hazy. Manager as a new entity comes into the picture. Such managers are caught between the owners of the company and the industrial peace supplier like RJ, and they find themselves in a difficulty. They get two bosses to report to. On the background of uncertain job tenure in private sector they turn more and more to political approach of playing one boss against another.
Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha under RJ had started Go-slow agitation in Jogeshwari factory of Unichem almost for six months. This is the most pernicious form of industrial action and is painful experience for the Managements. You have to pay full wages while being all the time uncertain about the output, since payment is connected with attendance. This go-slow agitation was going on from 3 June to 3 December 1979 and the production was hardly 40 per cent of the normal expected. The
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