Labourers can survive only if industries survive: Kassia on Bharat Bandh

Bengaluru, Sept 2 (KNN) Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA), has raised serious concerns about the “Spate of Bundhs” and strikes that have occurred in the recent past, the MSME association said referring to today’s strike by the National Trade Unions.

The industry body said that, “We believe that laborers must be payed a fare wage as an important partner in the production process. However one must also take into the account the capacity of an industry to pay.”

It said Micro & Small Industries are seriously handicapped by the many inequities they suffer from the ecosystem, it said.

Though they provide jobs to the most vulnerable sections of our society, their ability to pay ever increasing wages is seriously jeopardized due to the market conditions, Kassia General Secretary B Praveen said.

“They are constantly pressured by Large Industry & the Multinationals to reduce their prices. They can barely survive on the thin margins they make, if at all,” he added.

While their output price gets squeezed they have no control over the cost of inputs which increase at 15 – 20% annually. Therefore very survival of SMEs is at stake, SMEs which had some protection earlier and were an exempted category are now exposed to the global free market which threatens their very survival, he pointed out.

The MSME association feels that today’s strike in all likelihood will result in the production loss of 300 – 350 crore rupees in Karnataka in the SME sector alone including Services.

“This is an unaffordable loss when the national output is not growing at the expected rate,” Praveen said.

Urging the Trade Unions, to have a wider perspective, the industry body said, “The labourers can survive only if industries survive. While Large Industries may have the capacity to absorb the increasing wage costs, SMEs may disappear from the seen if the ground realities are not appreciated by everyone.” (KNN Bureau)