Officials of Arasu Rubber Corporation have urged rubber plantation workers, whose indefinite strike has entered the seventh day on Sunday demanding wage hike, to return to work in the interest of the Corporation.
The officials held talks with the protesters at Thovalai here on Sunday, and said that the indefinite strike was affecting the business of the Corporation to a great extent.
On Saturday, Tamil Nadu government’s Special Representative in New Delhi N. Thalavai Sundaram helped the representatives of the protesters to meet Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami at Thoothukudi on Saturday and submitted their petition regarding the issue. The Chief Minister also promised that necessary action will be taken.
In this context, on Sunday, Mr. Sundaram had a discussion with the office-bearers of the employees’ association, in which ARC Managing Director Nihar Ranjan also took part.
During the discussion, ARC officials said that 65% of the Corporation’s revenue went towards wages for workers and and other concessions. The production of rubber has also reduced from 2,000 tonnes to 1,300 tonnes even as the price of rubber had come down drastically. Now, ARC had become a loss making unit. Hence, the workers must return to work, they stressed.