Workers at a Barrackpore jute mill on Monday

Workers turned up in numbers in most mills in the Barrackpore jute belt on Monday with the CPM labour wing no longer strong enough to force them to stay home and lose a day’s wage.

Attendance in three leading mills in the belt — Empire, Kelvin and Loomtex — was over 80 per cent, said officials.

In contrast, the entire belt was closed when the CPM last called a general strike on April 27 this year, protesting price hike.

More than a dozen of the 21 mills that make up the belt operated with over 60 per cent attendance on Monday, said a leader of Citu, the labour wing of the CPM.

“We had decided not to force workers to join the bandh. So while some jute mills were closed, there was good turnout of workers in many others,” said Arabinda Banerjee, a senior leader of the union. Owners of the jute mills and workers said Citu had no option but to be tolerant with its ranks dwindling.

“Stopping work for a day is only going to hamper the production of jute sacks and pave the way for plastic ones to take their place. The workers would have lost a day’s wage if they stayed away and they did not want that,” said Jagadish Sarda, one of the owners of Empire Jute Mill, where nearly 80 per cent of the 2,000-odd workers turned up on Monday.

Ramesh Shaw, a senior supervisor of Kelvin Jute Mill in Titagarh and Congress councillor of ward 15 of Barrackpore Municipality, echoed Sarda. “Why would anybody want to lose a day’s wage at a time when prices are going up?” he asked.

“A worker earns between Rs 60 and Rs 180 daily. We deduct salary for every day a worker is absent without a reason,” said a mill official.

Kelvin Jute Mill recorded nearly 90 per cent attendance. The highest attendance — 92 per cent — was at Loomtex Industries.

“Our workers had told us they wanted to work on the bandh day,” said Rajinder Singh, the general manager (personnel) of the mill.