March 17: Workers affiliated to a Trinamul Congress union at Hindustan Unilever who were protesting at the gates of its Haldia unit were removed by police following a high court order today.

“We removed the barricades and helped the vehicles to enter the plant,” said Salil Ganguly, the subdivisional police officer of Haldia. The workers of the detergent-making unit did not offer much resistance.

Such swiftness in action was missing in the case of a Citu-led agitation by workers at Tata Chemicals, also in Haldia. At the Tata unit, production has been stalled since February 24 because there has been no breakthrough in talks between the Tatas and the union workers, led by the CPM’s Lakshman Seth, over a demand for monthly salary to 600 casual workers.

The Tatas have not approached court, but the administration has not stirred to defuse the crisis with the CPM’s labour arm.

At the Unilever factory, 138 permanent workers (out of 200) belonging to the Trinamul-led union went on an indefinite strike on March 2. It was the first such action by Trinamul in Bengal’s biggest industrial town where Citu has long held sway.

The workers, led by local Trinamul MP Subhendu Adhikari, are demanding reinstatement of four employees sacked for refusing to obey transfer orders.

On March 2, the workers blocked the main gate with bamboo barricades and party flags, preventing trucks from entering or leaving the factory. A series of meetings were held in Haldia and Calcutta but no solution emerged.

The Unilever management today moved high court seeking an order directing the police to make arrangements for the entry and exit of goods. Justice Dipankar Dutta passed the order a little after 2pm. The order restrained the members of the striking union from holding any agitation within 50 metres of the main gate.

The court also told the workers not to obstruct vehicle movement and asked Haldia police to remove the employees from the main gate.

“Soon after receiving the court order, we sent a fax to the Haldia administration asking it to take action according to the law,” government counsel Sovanlal Hazra said.

The factory has been operating in Haldia since 2001. It provides employment to about 600 people directly and indirectly.