“We’re confident and determined,” Lokon Miah told the Militant, “and we’re keeping the picket up all day.” Miah is one of two shop stewards at the factory where he’s worked for nine years. “We got the union organized a couple of years ago,” Naveed Chaudhry, the other shop steward, explained. Chaudhry has worked at Ambala for 27 years.

“It was in 2003,” commented Muhammad Khan. “My brother and cousin were sacked for not working overtime when a family emergency came up. When they returned to work the next day, the boss, Shoukat Ali, gave them immediate sacking letters. All the workers on the day shift stopped work and went to the canteen to demand a meeting with the boss. We wouldn’t accept the sacking and demanded to be heard.”

Chaudhry said that he organized a petition demanding reinstatement and the bosses backed off. The petition was signed by 90 workers. “Out of this experience we decided to get organized and joined the Transport and General Workers Union [TGWU].”

“Now we’re on strike to improve our pay,” Mohammad Khan said. “We’re demanding a £50 raise to make up for a five-year wage freeze. We’re striking for one day a week at present but if we don’t get our demands, we’ll escalate the action.”

Strikers said that many of them are on minimum wage. They told the Militant about what conditions were like in the plant before the factory was unionized. “Workers used to have to negotiate their wages individually,” said Abdul Raza. “Sometimes a manager would get a family member or friend taken on, and they’d get 20 percent or 30 percent more.”

“There also used to be huge amounts of overtime worked,” said Miah. “Fifty hours overtime a week was not uncommon. In many ways this is not just a strike about wages. It’s about really establishing the union.”

An impromptu meeting of the strikers was held at the factory gate. First to address the strikers was Tony Gould, one of two TGWU officials who were on the picket from early morning. Naveed Chaudhry addressed the meeting in Urdu. The bulk of the workers at the plant are from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh and have worked at the plant for many years. “The vote was 43 to 3 for strike action,” Lokon Miah told the Militant. “Since then we’re recruited another 15 to the union.”

Among people visiting the picket line was Celia Pugh, Communist League candidate for Parliament in the nearby constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow. The strikers were keen to talk with Pugh to explain the background to the action.

“The TWGU members at Ambala Foods are setting an example for the entire labor movement,” said the communist candidate, who works as a sewing machine operator. “Our campaign joins the fight to organize and strengthen the unions and use union power to resist the bosses’ attacks. Your determination and confidence is a lesson for us all.”

The pickets said they would not be intimidated by company threats that they may move the work to a nonunion plant in St. Albans, about 30 miles away.
 
 
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