Evaluate the impact of the Bombay Mill Strike of 1982.

The trade union leader, Dr Datta Samant started the famous strike called the Bombay Textile strike of 1982 which lasted for 2 years. It affected nearly a quarter of a million workers and their families. The strike was started to demand better wages and the right to form their own union.

• The Bombay Industrial Relations Act (BIRA) stated that a union to become ‘approved’ then they have to give up the strike which considered to be the only way. The only approved union was the Congress-led Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS) which helped to break the strike by taking in other workers.

• The government rejected the demand of the workers.

• After two years, because of anxiousness workers started going to work.

• Approx one lakh workers lost their jobs and went back to their villages.

• Many took casual labour and some moved to smaller towns to work in the power loom sector like in Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Icchalkaranji.

No investment was made by the mill owners in machinery and modernisation. Mill owners are now trying to sell these mill lands to real estate dealers to build luxury apartments causing a conflict questioning who will define the future of the city of Mumbai – mill owners, workers who constructed these mills or the real estate agents.