Cops step in, shield Kerala kiln owner from union trouble

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Police intervened in the end on Friday to avoid wasting a 57-year-old lady entrepreneur’s brick enterprise from being pulled down by unionised headload staff. The group had harassed her to pay greater than stipulated wages and stopped others from working on the kiln, disregarding even a Kerala HC order restraining them from disrupting operations.
The change took place on a day TOI reported how this six-year-old enterprise began by Pushpakumari and her husband Thankappan, a retired worker of the state transport company, had been compelled to undergo the previous scourge of unionism within the Left-governed state.
Forced to close their kiln for 2 days following threats and unreasonable wage calls for from headload staff owing allegiance to the CPM-affiliated CITU and Congress’ commerce union wing INTUC, the couple was considering winding up their enterprise. “Per the high court order, we will ensure protection to them if there is any law-and-order issue. We will not allow anybody to disrupt their business,” stated SI Harsha Kumar.
Former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar was amongst those that criticised the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF govt for failing to guard entrepreneurship.
Pushpakumari stated she and her husband would reopen their kiln now that police had come out to guard them. The entrepreneur stated she had approached the excessive court docket after dropping religion in police. “All this while, the cops had refused to intervene.”