Just this weekend I met a father of four in New York City. He was a top executive at a financial accounting firm and had been with the company for over a decade. He was personable and interested in how my day was going. When I responded with “not as good as I was hoping it to be,” he gave me encouraging words and told me he was laid off by the accounting firm a few months ago. This was the reason he was driving my cab on a late Saturday night...so he could feed his family.
The global economy continues to present problems for those looking to put dinner on the table. Spanning from continent to continent, the pressure to minimize unemployment and optimize the markets are of the utmost priority, especially in countries so ravished by financial instability like India.
When people's livelihoods are jeopardized, the human struggle to survive is pushed to its limit.
This was shown earlier this week, within the small city of Yanam, in the Andra Pradesh state on India's east coast. Police were called to the Regency Ceramics factory by management to resolve a labor dispute. The workers of the factory were calling for higher pay and reinstatement of previously laid off workers since October. M. Murali Mohan was the union leader that organized the dispute with the corporation and was fired just hours after the police left the factory.
The following day, Murali went back to the factory along with other workers and tried to obstruct the morning shift. Police were called in once again and this time used long batons to control the outraged workers, injuring at least 20 of them, including Murali. He then died on the way to the hospital due to such traumatic injuries,
Following word of Murali's death, hundreds of factory workers gathered outside the police station and demanded that officers be charged with homicide.
Rioters also torched dozens of vehicles outside the police station and factory workers destroyed 50 company cars, buses and trucks and lit them on fire as well while also ransacking the factory. As the rioted at the factory took place, residents of the area gathered in support of the workers, holding hands with nearly 600 Regency employees.
Enraged, the workers then raided the home of their boss, Regency's president K.C. Chandrashekhar and beat him to death with lead pipes.
Riots have continued following the murders as eight Regency Ceramics workers were injured while confronting the firing police officers, two of those workers are in critical condition while over 100 protesters have been arrested.
Curfew and other civil orders have now been imposed in Yanam due to the uprising that ultimately led to the murder of both the Regency president Chandrashekhar and union leader Murali.
Wage disputes have taken over the Regency Ceramics factory since January 1st as workers went on strike. The company's management than put a restraining order on five workers and obtained an order from a high court saying that the striking workers should not come within 220 yards from the factory.
India's factory workers are the lowest paid within the big four emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), according to Forbes. India's per capita income is under $4,000 a year, making it the poorest country in the BRICs although the economy is relatively booming. Many experts see India as the fastest growing economy of the four rising nations. But still the standard of living is at less-than-modest levels. Corruption and poor infrastructure are holding India back from prospering further, and events like those at the Regency Ceramics shop happen more frequently than most think.
Stories of this severity are not as common in other parts of the world, but the fact is, unfairly treated workers and budget-conscious management continue to dispute no matter the nation. Poor working conditions and wages are leading to dramatic increases in suicides or violent acts. In 2010, nearly a dozen factory workers in China committed suicide at Apple's Foxconn factory, forcing safety nets to be put in place through the facilities.
Worker's lives are at stake with every new hiring and firing, pay raise or drop, or over all working conditions and people are at the end of their rope...
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