While cashew workers look forward to the new Left Democratic Front (LDF) government with much expectation, the private employers of the sector are apprehensive about what will be the projections of the new government for the sector.
“The government’s approach can ruin or revive the sector,” said an employer who has kept his factories shut. The last wage hike for the workers notified by the government pushed the sector into crisis since thousands of workers lost their jobs when factories were closed down by employers who termed the 35 per cent hike as “unbearable.”’
The employers contend that the wage hike pushed up production costs making Kerala kernels uncompetitive in the international markets.
When the government refused to budge to the situation presented by the employers, many of them kept factories shut, some migrated to other States to start processing while a few stayed back to keep the factories operating.
The paradox now is such that if wage hikes bring cheer to workers, the last wage hike for the cashew sector has brought only woe to cashew workers.
Factories under the public sector Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation (KSCDC), termed the model employer of the sector, were already lying closed due to lack of working capital support from the government.
When one of the closed private factories in Kollam was taken on rent recently by a processor to meet an unexpected kernel deal from Japan, more than 1,000 cashew workers, all of them women, rushed to that factory gates in the hope of getting work. But that factory has the capacity to accommodate only 250 workers.
The rest returned frustrated. The development reflects the kind of plight which has gripped the cashew sector. Two years ago the situation was different. The factory gates were kept open for cashew workers since there was shortage of labour and that gap was taken over by migrant workers. More than 600 cashew factories were operating at that time in Kollam district alone.
For practical approach
The employers say that if the government fails to adopt a practical and accommodative approach, even the few factories that operate could face closure. Successive governments are only considering the vote bank politics triggered contentions of the sector’s militant trade unions, they say.
“The cashew sector should be kept free from vote banks politics if the industry has to survive here,” said a processor.
At a crossroads
Govt.’s approach can ruin or revive sector, say employers
KSCDC factories remaining closed due to lack of working capital
