Fighters to the core

Geeta Pai, widow of Gajanan Pai, a former labourer with Garware Nylon knocked every door of her village to ask for money.

As the ex-workers of Garware Nylon reclaim the factory, the major contributors in raising the amount of 6.01 crore reminisce their tryst with determination

Geeta Pai, widow of Gajanan Pai, a former labourer with Garware Nylon knocked every door of her village to ask for money. In fact her urge to collect money was so intense that she set out to sell her faith to strangers. When 55- year – old Pai took off the silver jewellery that the idols of Gods and Goddesses at her home were adorned with, people branded her an atheist. But Pai was very clear on her religious beliefs. “My God is within me and I wanted to be with all those who were fighting not only for their survival but also for their right and dignity.”

On November 7, when 210 erstwhile workers of Garware Nylon Ltd reclaimed their rights and dues as they became owners of the nine-acre company land in Ahmednagar after raising money to purchase the land for Rs 6.01 crore, Pai’s faith too got its due. The other 12 workers who toiled day and night to raise money take the Rs 50, 000 contribution Pai made to the amount in high regards.

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After four extensions from the Supreme Court on the deadline to submit the last installment of over 4.5 crore it was not only Pai who lost her sleep but so did all those workers who deposited Rs 1.5 crore in the first week of March this year.

Babban Shankar Shete, a machine operator with the company raised 52 lakh to contribute to the amount. “When in 2006 we came to the NGO Commom Peoples’ Front in Nigdi, things started falling into place and when we decided we will claim the factory, a sudden adrenaline rush was there. We just wanted to get back what we lost and there was a driving force that made us do so. All of us had moved to different places and were in a way scattered. Some had become goldsmiths, some storekeepers and some had bought land and settled as farmers; but still we came together to own what was rightfully ours. ”

Shete, whose son thought he has bitten more he could chew, had to resign to the firm determination of his father. “Jeb mein ek paisa nahi aur factory khareedana hai! That is how my son reacted when I told him about our plans. And when many people like Sindhi busineemen Narendra Chandiramani and Rajendra Bijlani contributed contributed 20 lakh each he too offered to contribute his money,” shares Shete

A.R. Desai too was amongst the major contributors who sacrificed his future plans of extending his house and marrying his daughter so that he can contribute to the amount. Gulab Ganpat Barne’s mother -in -law broke her 14 lakh FD so that she too can support her son-in-law. “My mother-in-law did not need any persuasion. She just heard what we are doing and offerd to contribute.”Barne has toiled hard to raise Rs 32 lakh, the amount he contributed himself.

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Today, when the quest to attain the unattainable is almost over the workers can’t believe this has actually happened. “The feeling that we own the company is yet to sink in! we can’t believe it has actually happened,” says Barne.

In the year 1996 when the three units of the Garware Nylon at Pimpri, Ahmednagar and Sarola shut down after accumulated losses of over Rs 300 crore, more than 1,200 workers lost their jobs. Many workers who had to take up odd jobs to make ends meet in the last 12 years came ahead to stake a claim in the factory under the aegis of CPF.