Sportking
Factory Jeeda Workers
Forge a Victory Through Struggle
Industrial workers in our country are among the
most exploited of all labourers. Brutal working conditions, unsafe workplaces,
meagre wages, insecure jobs, and constant humiliation and oppression by
contractors and factory owners define their daily lives. Changing these
conditions—and the wider system that sustains such exploitation—requires
industrial workers to come to the forefront of people's struggles. Yet the
truth is that the industrial workers' movement still lags badly: it has not
become the vanguard of broader struggles, and it remains insufficiently
organised even to fight for its own rights.
Across the country, industrial workers have
repeatedly launched both small and large struggles. Yet the central challenge
remains: to turn these scattered efforts into a united, militant, and
revolutionary workers' movement. The government's implementation of the Labour
Codes, along with a steady stream of anti-worker decisions, has made this need
even more urgent. These measures, added to existing anti-worker policies, have
deepened unrest among industrial workers, and that unrest is now surfacing in
many places. In the Delhi NCR region, it has erupted sharply, and the workers'
struggle there has spread a spirit of resistance among industrial workers
across the country. That spirit has reached Punjab as well, and the struggle of
workers at the Sportking Factory in Jeeda, Bathinda district, stands as one
such example.
This factory is run by the Oswal Group of Ludhiana. More than five
thousand workers are employed here. Most of them are from surrounding villages,
though a significant portion are migrant workers. The local workers are mainly
from agricultural labourer families, and among them, the majority are women
workers. Working conditions inside the factory are extremely poor and wages are
very low. But due to the deepening agricultural crisis, the impact of unplanned
mechanisation of farming on agricultural labourers' employment, the pathetic
state of the MGNREGA scheme, and the tightening grip of microfinance company
loans on agricultural labourer families — for all these reasons, large numbers
of farm labourer families look to this meagre but steady income and strive to
get work in such factories, working even under such conditions.
There is a presence of other organised people's groups in the area
around this factory, making conditions favourable for forming a supportive
front for industrial workers. But due to the long-standing general state of
disorganisation and inactivity among industrial workers here, no strong voice
of struggle had arisen from within this factory against poor working conditions
and oppression. The Naujawan Bharat Sabha (Ashwani Ghudda), active in the area,
had made efforts in the past in this regard and had gathered considerable information
about the working conditions by meeting the factory workers. The picture that
emerged from this information revealed the conditions of exploitation and
oppression faced by factory workers.
Working conditions in this factory are particularly harsh. Thread is
manufactured here. There are numerous stages in the process of making thread
from raw cotton, and at each stage workers must breathe air thick with dust
from cotton and fibre. This air is extremely dangerous for the lungs, and the
workers of this factory frequently suffer from serious respiratory diseases.
This dust enters the body not only through breathing but also through the ears
and even the eyes. To ensure thread quality, the temperature inside the factory
is continuously maintained at 45 degrees Celsius, and workers must work in this
extreme heat. The noise from the machines is extremely loud — workers have said
that even if someone shouts out of necessity, others cannot hear their voice.
This noise has a severely dangerous effect on the ears, and within a few years
workers' hearing becomes paralysed. By law, workers employed in such
health-hazardous conditions must not only be provided all kinds of effective
safety equipment and special medical check-up arrangements, but their wages
must also be higher than those of ordinary workers. However, in this factory
workers were paid a daily wage of only ₹434, which is even less than what an
ordinary daily-wage labourer earns. As for medical facilities — far from
special medical facilities, most workers hadn't even been issued ESI cards, or
the cards that had been made were held by factory officials. Not only were
workers not paid the proper overtime rate, they were never even given an
account of the overtime they had worked. Salary slips were not provided,
apparently to enable manipulation of overtime hours. On the other hand, because
fewer workers than needed were employed, overtime was being forcibly imposed on
workers, and they were only informed of this at the last moment. Entire shifts
were detained without prior notice to work overtime, causing major disruptions
to everyone's household responsibilities and travel arrangements. Since workers
come from villages on factory buses, when a shift is held back, refusing
overtime means struggling to reach one's village via scattered buses or other
means. Thus overtime had become compulsory, especially for women. Not only for
cutting overtime, but even for taking leave in emergencies, workers had to face
extreme harassment — being sent from one official to another for leave
permission, with the bus departure time passing in this runaround. Hostel
accommodation for girls was very poor, with eight girls crammed into a single
room. The quality of food was so bad that they would regularly ask their fellow
workers coming from the villages to bring food for them. Women workers were
completely prohibited from carrying mobile phones inside the factory.
It was precisely through this level of exploitation of workers that the
factory owners had significantly expanded their operations in recent times —
new land, new units, and new machines were added to the factory. But work on
these machines was being extracted from a lesser number of workers. A single
worker was being made to work on multiple frames alone. The behaviour of
factory officials and the supervisors and jobbers appointed to oversee work was
extremely poor towards workers. Under these conditions, resentment among
workers had been building for a long time. Occasional incidents of arguments
with officials had also been occurring. For some time, workers in Account No. 6
had been in conflict with officials over being made to work on more frames. On
the 19th, the workers of this account gathered at the factory gate, and workers
from other accounts spontaneously got off their buses and joined them. These
workers began a sit-in at the factory gate.
As soon as news of this dharna (sit-in) spread, leaders and activists of
the area's public organisations began arriving at the factory gate in support
of these workers. The management was compelled to invite the factory workers
for talks. Jora Singh Nasrali, state president of the Farm Labourers Union, and
Sukhveer Singh Khemuana, leader of Naujawan Bharat Sabha, who had reached the
spot with the factory workers, also participated. The management gave a written
assurance to resolve the demands within one week. In the event demands were not
met, a programme for a complete strike and dharna with major preparation and
the support of public organisations was chalked out for the 26th, one week
later.
In the days that followed, reading the needs of the situation — the
spontaneous nature of the struggle and the inexperience of the worker leaders
who had emerged during it — and coming forward to provide genuine assistance,
organisations including Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta (Ugrahan), Lok Morcha
Punjab, and Naujawan Bharat Sabha (Ashwani Ghudda) ran an effective campaign to
prepare for the strike in villages with a large number of factory workers. What
needed to be done in the situation, the dangers present, the need to form a
union — all these aspects were vigorously highlighted. The prejudices that had
developed between migrant workers and local workers against each other were
specifically addressed. Emphasis was placed on preparation to prevent
management from creating divisions among workers and selectively targeting the
leaders who had emerged. These organisations prepared in more than a dozen
villages. Even during this preparatory campaign, workers showed strong
enthusiasm for the dharna, and the meetings held by these organisations were
listened to and understood with great attention.
Word of such preparation also reached the management, and it put in full
effort to make this dharna fail. Through influential village people, panchayat
members, and local political leaders, attempts were made to intimidate and
threaten workers and prevent them from attending these meetings. Every tactic
was used — from citing trivial, publicity-oriented development works carried
out by the factory in the villages, or enticing others with promises of factory
jobs, to making direct threats. At one place, even during an ongoing meeting, a
local leader attempted to threaten a factory worker from the village who had
arranged the meeting. But all these efforts failed before the workers' resolve.
Vigorous preparations for the dharna continued both inside the factory and in
the villages outside.
The factory's first shift begins at 6 a.m. On the 26th, by around four
in the morning, leaders and workers of fraternal organisations and some factory
workers began arriving. The Bathinda police administration was fully on the
management's side, and a large police deployment was made to prevent workers
from gathering. Despite this, activists of the fraternal organisations and factory
workers gathered and the dharna began. At this gathering, the Sportking
Workers' Union Jeeda was elected. Despite scorching heat, the dharna
continued throughout the day. Fraternal organisations arranged drinking water,
tea, a tent for the stage, and other necessities. The Jeeda Toll Plaza Workers'
Union also joined the gathering with a sizeable contingent and helped
considerably with arrangements too. Leaders of organisations including
Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta (Ugrahan), Farm Labourers Union, Naujawan Bharat
Sabha (Ashwani Ghudda), Naujawan Bharat Sabha (Manga Azad), and Kirti Kisan
Union addressed the dharna. Long rounds of talks were held between a joint
delegation of factory workers and fraternal organisations and the management.
During these talks, the labour officer and police administration were openly
seen taking the management's side. But unable to counter the arguments of
fraternal organisation leaders and factory workers, they were forced to concede
several demands — including: regularly providing salary slips; raising daily
wages of unskilled workers to ₹481 and semi-skilled workers to ₹511; paying ₹12
extra per day to night shift workers compared to day shift; providing proper
food to girls in the hostel; returning forcibly held ESI cards and making new
ones for those lost or not yet issued; holding separate talks soon on overtime
wages; and taking no action against any worker who had participated in or led
the strike. Workers broadly agreed on these points, but the wage increase was
still a sticking point — the increase offered by management was not
satisfactory. So the announcement was made to continue the struggle, and with
the declaration to reassemble the next day, workers went home at night. At the
organisations' request, police transported workers to their villages in their
buses.
But after one round of talks, the next day the management and the local
administration and officials backing them returned to a hard-line stance. The
next day, to torpedo this struggle, police began arresting factory workers
early in the morning. Workers getting off buses arriving at the factory gate
from villages were taken into custody by police and taken to different police
stations. Around 125 factory workers — boys and girls — including Naujawan
Bharat Sabha leader Sukhbeer Khemuana and the other Naujawan Bharat Sabha
leader Manga Azad, were arrested and kept at Killi Nihal Singh, Nandgarh, and
Nehianwala police stations. As soon as news of their arrests spread, workers of
Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan and Farm Labourers Union received word to
reach these police stations. The workers of these organisations reached the
police stations within a short time. At two police stations they even went
inside to meet the factory workers, assured them, and arranged their food and
drink. Simultaneously, an announcement was made to blockade roads in protest
against this repression. Organisation workers and factory workers first
gathered in Jeeda village and then, marching from there, came and imposed an
indefinite blockade on the main Bathinda-Amritsar road. In scorching heat
people sat firmly on the bare road. The turn of events upset the
administration's calculations, and it was forced to once again call for talks.
Leaders declared that there would be no talks with the administration or
management until all workers were released. The administration was thus
compelled to take steps to release the workers. These workers joined the
gathering amid resounding slogans, and the leadership team, along with other
fraternal organisations, went for another round of talks. In these talks, in
addition to the demands already conceded, they were made to raise the daily
wage of unskilled workers to ₹500 and semi-skilled workers to ₹520. During the
tussle, the management agreed to compensate for a girl's mobile phone that had
been broken. They agreed to take action against the guard who had manhandled
girls. A guarantee was made that the behaviour of officials and jobbers would
be proper.
Once again, this struggle has been won through the combined strength of
the people. The great achievement of this struggle is that the Sportking
Workers' Union has formally come into existence. But a difficult journey still
lies ahead for this union. Preparation is needed both for the implementation of
the agreed settlement and for protecting the union and its leadership team in
the time ahead. The unavoidable task of building the capacity to confront
management on its own strength also lies before it.
At the same time, it is essential to recognise and
strengthen ties with the fraternal organisations that offered selfless support.
It is only this solidarity that can serve as a fighting force for factory
workers in the period ahead, and it is also crucial for advancing the
farmer-worker alliance needed to secure broader and more meaningful gains.
(Surkh Leeh, May-June 2026 issue)
