Powerloom owners and workers begin relay hunger strike demanding wage hike | Coimbatore News

COIMBATORE: Powerloom unit owners and workers in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts launched a relay hunger strike on Friday, demanding that textile manufacturers hike their wages.
The protest, which is scheduled to continue for five days till April 15, follows an indefinite strike that began on March 19.
Coimbatore and Tirupur, home to around 1.5 lakh powerlooms, employ more than one lakh workers. Weavers from Somanur, Karumathampatti, Vagarayampalayam and Kannampalayam in Coimbatore district and those from Palladam taluk, Avinashi, Thekkalur and Perumanallur in Tirupur district are participating in the protest.
Thousands of powerloom unit owners and workers, accompanied by their families, took part in the hunger strike on Friday. The protesters are demanding a negotiation involving textile manufacturers, the labour welfare department and the district collectors to resolve the payment issue.
“The production loss due to the strike is estimated to be around ₹600 crore over the last 23 days,” said E Boopathi, president of the Job-Working Powerloom Unit Weavers Association of Coimbatore and Tirupur.
He noted that nearly 95% of the 1.5 lakh powerlooms in the two districts operate on a job-work basis.
“The wages for job-working weaving units were last revised in February 2022. However, the revised wages agreed upon in 2022 are not implemented. Textile manufacturers failed to honour the agreement, and currently, job-working units are still being paid based on wage rates fixed in 2014,” he said.
Boopathi added that many powerloom weavers engaged in job work were struggling to sustain their operations due to rising production costs, low wages and high electricity charges. “With increasing costs of inputs and machinery accessories, it has become difficult to continue job work. Therefore, we are demanding a 60% wage hike from the 2022 agreed rates,” he said.