The first time, after I came from the village, I found the environment here strange. 2
FInding a job is difficult; I come here to work for 7-8 months and then go back and come again. 3
It is quite normal to work in factories for 12 - 16 hours per day. 4
What is strange about the environment in the city? 5
The ways of living and eating. There is no time to eat or sleep. 6
You get up to go to work, have a shower to go to work, eat to go to work. 7
Nothing is left for one's own life. 8
How did you get the room you live in? How did you get your first job? 9
Did you get any help or through relatives or contacts? 10
I had a relative - my father`s uncle's son. I came with him. 11
He taught me the work for 7-8 months. 12
I lived with him for 3-4 years, after which I started to live separately. 13
Since then I have been in this place. 14
Was the first job in a factory? 15
yes. It was an export company. I learnt the work there. 16
You learnt sewing work? 17
I had learnt sewing work for 2 years in the village. 18
Then I had to learn it here again. 19
You started to learn sewing when you were 14 years old. 20
No, when I was 12 when I started. 21
I was 14 and a half years old when I came here. 22
In the factory the first 2-3 months are a probation period, so you had to work very hard? 23
How many hours did you work? 24
For 6 months I worked continuously from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. 25
There was no holiday? 26
No, there was no holiday. 27
Because of that I had health problems - breathing problems. 28
I had to be treated for 1 year. I spent more than I earned on my treatment. 29
Now I am alright. 30
Now you are okay? After 6 months, did you further work in this factory? 31
After 6 months I worked in another factory J P Export until I was 15. 32
Then I was 15. Then I worked for 2 years in Liliput Kidswear. 33
Now, since 1 year, I have been working at Unistyle Image. 34
I was never made permanent - it has been just like this. 35
How many factories have you worked in altogether? 36
7-8 altogether. 37
How old are you? 38
I am 22. 39
So in these 7 years, did your earnings rise? 40
No. 41
How much do you normally earn in a month? 42
Rs 5,000 - 6,000. 43
And has this remained the same for the last 6 years? 44
Yes, it has remained the same. 45
The government has been raising the daily wage, but the wages you earn from piece rate have been coming down. 46
And I have so far worked on piece rate. 47
7 years ago, the Delhi rate for 8 hour week was Rs, 3,200; now it is Rs.4,550. 48
Have you seen any changes in the industry? 49
For example we can say that 20 years ago, all workers were permanent. 50
Perhaps 10 years ago about half were subcontract workers. 51
Now perhaps 80% of the workers are subcontracted. 52
Yes, it is completely subcontract work. 53
But compared to earlier times, the earnings have gone down. 54
It was something else before and now it is something else. 55
And besides that? Are there new machines? 56
Previously, the machines were run with the feet. 57
Now there is a computer machine in which we do not need to cut the thread. 58
Is it for sewing? 59
Yes. The computer machine is safer and faster. 60
Whereas with the previous machines we could make 7 pieces, with the new machines we can make 10. 61
We can make 3 pieces more. Where you got Rs 12, you can now get Rs. 36. 62
What other problems are there in the factory besides working for 16 hours? 63
The problem is to have to sit 16 hours in one place. 64
It is a difficult situation but we are forced to sit there because the company puts pressure on us. 65
If we don't do it, we will have to leave the company. So we do it in order to be able to live. 66
Is the atmosphere between the workers fine? 67
Ya, it?s okay, but sometimes there are tensions. 68
What's the problem? 69
About somebody has more work and another has less. 70
It is piece rate so if someone gets 10 pieces while another one gets 20, 71
and so the workers will talk why someone got more pieces. 72
So the workers get angry when some of the people make more pieces? 73
Yes. 74
Why does this make them angry? 75
Because another worker gets more cutting and will therefore have work for another day while we have nothing to do. 76
What do the workers do to improve the situation in the factory? 77
To improve their lives, the workers believe in one thing only - that what is written in their fate - just that will happen. 78
This is their only target. 79
If they are fated to do 12 hours work, then it is useless or beyond their thinking to ask what they can do about it. 80
Life has not improved, rather it has become hell. 81
And it is deteriorating because work is decreasing- There is one company that is being closed down and everything is being sold. 82
In the next 3-4, work will decrease and the situation will become very bad. 83
We will move from company to company. 15 days here and then move. 84
We will manage to earn our bread but where we used to get Rs. 5,000 - 6,000 we will get Rs. 4,000. 85
Do your friends have a vision or an idea about what they can do, 86
perhaps they can make a union or quietly reduce the workload? 87
The workers feel angry, but there are supervisors standing there all the time. 88
And they have no shortage of workers. If one leaves, there are 10 to take his place. 89
If you do not meet the target, they will remove you and somebody else will take your place. 90
And the workers are always changing - nobody is permanent. 91
Today you come back from work, but there is no guarantee that tomorrow you will have the same work. 92
So it is pointless to have a vision about the future. 93
The way it is working is fine and when it comes to an end, then it is the end. So this is the thing. 94
So in a year, how many days do you work and how many days do you spend in the village? 95
In a year we work for at least 10-11 months and spend one month in the village. 96
And that too - we go for a week or 15 days every 3-4 months. We go for one week and then come back. 97
It is not convenient. There are some people who go back to the village after 5 years 98
because nothing changes there - it remains the same. So people go home according to their need. 99
Those people who have a relation to the village, because of parents, 100
they stay in the village for 2-4 months. They work only for 6 months. 101
Those who do not have money they go to the village after 9-10 months or 4-5 years. 102
Somebody who comes from Bihar, it is difficult for them to go back every 3 months. 103
He earns Rs. 3,000 and can save Rs. 1,000 or Rs. 2,000. 104
The train fare costs Rs. 1,000 or Rs. 2,000. So he won't go. 105
My village is somewhat close. It costs only Rs. 150, so I go often. 106
But for those whom it costs Rs. 500 - Rs. 600 and it takes 36 hours, they do not do this so often. 107
If you leave this job, how much time will it take you to find another job? 108
Another job is difficult because you have to learn the job 109
and you get the helper's rate of Rs. 2,500 or Rs. 3,000, although the rate is Rs. 4,000. 110
So a person who is earning Rs. 5,000 why should he work for Rs. 3,000. 111
So he will never leave and he will not find better work anywhere. 112
Because all work is the same. 113
When you see another person doing it, you think it is nice work 114
but as soon as you get in, you find out that it is rubbish work. 115
So you get Rs. 5,000. What are your outgoings? What rent do you pay? 116
Rs. 850. 117
But you live together with someone? 118
We are three, so my rent costs are Rs. 300. 119
What do you need for living costs? 120
For food I manage in Rs. 2,000 - Rs, 2,200. 121
If you smoke and drink, those expenses can be increased as much as you want. 122
But I live simply so I manage within Rs. 2000. 123
Apart from this, for medicine? 124
If we fall ill, there is no telling how much money we will need. 125
One does not know what the doctors will charge. 126
But how much money can you approximately save in a month? 127
About Rs. 3,000. If someone earns Rs. 6,000, he can save Rs. 3,500. 128
If someone earns Rs. 4,000, they can save Rs. 2,000. 129
Do you send money to the village? 130
Yes, I have to send some. 131
So was there any moment in the factory when you felt there was some strength in the workers 132
or have you only felt that we are weak? 133
The workers here keep going on in these conditions. 134
If there is little space to breathe, he wants to cope there. 135
So there is no hope because we do not know what will happen tomorrow. 136
Here people think that they can get solutions by fighting and beating others. 137
Do the workers some time in Unistyle, for example, say that piece rate is very low and we would like to have more? 138
In 7 years, this is the only factory I have been to where workers stop working, 139
because they offer to pay Rs. 10 per piece and we say this is too little and they say they will not increase it. 140
So we stop work. Then through negotiations, they increase it by Rs. 1 or Rs. 2 or Rs. 4. 141
When we see that this will give us Rs. 200 - Rs. 250 more, we start working again. 142
Recently they offered Rs. 28 for a piece. 143
We stopped working so he increased it to Rs. 32, then offered Rs. 35. 144
We still did not work so he eventually offered Rs.37. 145
How many people were involved in this? 146
In this, there are 50 people who do the sewing. They were all involved. 147
How many people work in the factory? 148
About 100 of which 50 are machinists, 20 ladies who cut thread, 15-20 in ironing, and helpers. 149
But these people continued to work? 150
Yes, the craftsmen fought for their rate. 151
People who have a permanent employment there, it had nothing to do with them. 152
although they get low salaries. They get Rs. 2,400 - Rs. 2,500 for eight hours, and other staff. 153
Was it impossible to involve these people? 154
They are mostly subcontractor's workers. 155
And they also tell us, "You are craftsmen. If you leave here, you will get another job. 156
We will have difficulties in finding a job. We are fine the way we are." 157
So they did not join your stoppage. 158
What was the atmosphere between these 50 people ? 159
Did they not fear that if they did not work, they might get thrown out. 160
Our work is so insecure that we, who work in piece rate, we don't know when they will throw us out. 161
Some people did fear that they might lose their jobs. 162
But we work on piece rate so that if there is no work tomorrow they will get rid of us anyway. 163
That is why when he refused to give us the rate we asked for, we asked him to settle our accounts. 164
As he was preparing to release us, the man in charge of production came 165
and said he would give Rs. 37. So the work started again. 166
How did you make a decision between 50 people? Did you have a leader? 167
No, there was no leader. There were 50 craftsmen. 168
When it was lunchtime at 3 o'clock, all the craftsmen went outside and talked with one another 169
that the rate was low and it should be raised otherwise we should stop working at 3:30. 170
So everybody went inside and stopped working. 171
When the supervisor asked us to work, we said "First increase the rate". There was no need for a leader. 172
Was there an agreement after this? Did the management talk to everybody? 173
No, the management says they do not have anything to do with us. 174
The owners have nothing to do with us. 175
We are subcontract workers so the subcontractor comes and talks to us. 176
Talks to all 50 of you? 177
Yes, there are two subcontractors. They talk to the management. 178
The management never talks to us, whether we work or not. 179
He talks to the subcontractor and the subcontractor tells us to work and we work according to him. 180
What was the improvement you got after stopping to work? 181
Rs. 100 forever 12 hours. 182
So you got an advantage of Rs. 100 for stopping work? 183
Is the rate still the same? The management does not try to bring it down? 184
No. Once the rate is agreed it stays the same for that production. 185
Because the orders are for 2,000 - 4,000 pieces. 186
What is being made now, there are 12,000 pieces and for these pieces the rate we have agreed that will apply. 187
What do you think the workers can do to improve the situation? 188
The labour power, when the workers want it, everything is possible, 189
but they have constraints - there is a wife and kids. 190
I don't know what the thing is but they would prefer to have very little, but do not like to go hungry. 191
When we stopped working for 4 days our wages were increased. 192
If everybody became like this, conditions can become better. 193
But if the workers have a tiny breathing space, they try to manage within that. 194
So how can you talk to them, they are not even prepared to think like that. 195
And one cannot hope that there will ever be a revolution. 196
But they harass the young workers more? 197
Naturally, because somebody who is old - 45 years, they can't do much work so why should anyone harass them? 198
And the older you get, the less capable you are of working. 199
Now, when I am 40, I will not be able to see the sewing, I will be practically blind. 200
Because the threads are fine - it is detailed work. 201
So I have to think what I will do after this. We'll see. Some people go back to the village and do farming. 202
But if 50 people can increase their wages by Rs. 100 by stopping work for two days, this is not so difficult. 203
So why don't more people go on strike? 204
Because there is a government minimum wage rate and they are giving that. 205
But the biggest problem is that there is a vast supply of workers. 206
There is no dearth of labour whereas there is shortage of workers. 207
So it is difficult to think how to do this. With us it was that we were making the full piece. 208
In other places it is done in a production chain so you cannot do it. 209
With the full piece you can stop work. 210
So these 50 people are very skilled? 211
Yes, the make the full garment. In many such factories, which work on piece rate, this kind of thing goes on constantly. 212
There is always disagreement over rate and they increase the wages by Rs.2 - Rs.4. And the workers manage to get something. 213
But the trouble with piece rate is, today there is work and tomorrow not 214
whereas those who are on salary, they get it regularly. 215
But it evens out. The salaried workers earn Rs. 5,000 and we earn Rs. 5,000. 216
But in piece rate there is tension and there are targets. 217
Would you like to say anything else? 218
What should I say? If the worker unity happens we will see. 219
This is a very old tradition and it will take time to get rid of it. 220
Or it is the task of the political leaders - they can decide whether we get benefits or get shot.