The Power looms weaver’s strike against power traffic in Tamil Nadu has almost a week ended and the estimated loss is Rs 35 Cr daily while no indication shows from the Tamil Nadu government to roll back the decision of power traffic hike.
The two most affected district of Tamil Nadu is Tiruppur and Coimbatore where two lakhs of direct employees and another three lakhs of indirect employees in the 1.75 lakh power loom spread across Somanur and Palladam areas in both the districts.
As per Business Standard wrote on 19 September, the president of the power loom unit weavers in Coimbatore and Tiruppur, C. Palaniswamy said, “The strike has today entered the fourth day and this has led to a loss of Rs 35 crore per day. The production of 1 crore meter length of fabric has also been affected due to the strike.”
Shanmuganathan T., a power loom weaver from Palladam while speaking to IANS said, “I am not sure when the strike will come to an end. We had strikes for wage hikes in January 2022 and continued for two months before it was called off in March. The power looms were closed due to increase in prices of cotton and yarn and with the power tariff hike, there is again a shutdown. All these are directly affecting the workers and we don’t know what to do else as we have been trained for this only.”
He said that the new power tariff hike will put a higher burden of Rs 8, 000 – Rs 9, 000 on each power loom unit per month which is a major increase as far as power loom weavers are concerned.
The power loom weavers also demand that the increase in fixed charges above 750 units of power for a unit was also creating a burden on them.
