Factsheet: The 10th Month: Bombay's Historic Textile Strike, A chronology of events.
The ongoing textile strike in Bombay represent a watershed in the history of Indian labour. The ten month long struggle of the textile workers has, once again re-established their credentials as a workforce that has stayed at the forefront of industrial unionism in the country and has in fact even dictated its course.It was their pioneering efforts in the early years of this century that determined the scope and nature of all legislation pertaining to industrial relations. After a virtually dormant decade, two-and-a-half lakh workers are now threatening to breakdown the carefully-designed, repressive structures that had straitjacketed them for over thirty years, particularly the INTUC-affiliated Rastriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh which has been the sole bargaining agent for the cotton textile industry under the provisions of the Bombay Industrial Relations Act since 1946.