Christmas cake crisis

Hundreds of anxious customers must have heaved a sigh of relief when The Indian Express (IE) reported, on December 21, 2007, that cakes from Poona’s famed Kayani Bakery would roll out hot and steaming during this Christmas season too. Thirty-six workers belonging to the Kayani Bakery Kamgar Sanghatana, who had walked out a week earlier, resumed work on December 19 after arriving at a temporary truce with the management to ensure that the 55-year-old Bakery did not lose business during the busy Christmas season.

The atmosphere had been vitiated since June 2007 when workers struck work raising certain demands, IE of December 15 revealed. The confrontation had taken an ugly turn on December 13 when Rustom Kayani, one of the six partners was allegedly assaulted by five unidentified men who threatened to kill him if he refused to concede to the union’s demands in the next couple of days. Kayani recalls that he was about to enter his car to go home at about 6.45 a.m. after his night shift when the men, faces hidden behind monkey caps, pulled up on two motorcycles and approached him. "One of them whacked me on my head with a weapon from behind. Then I felt a blow land on my knee and as I crumbled, my head was banged on the concrete.”

While the management maintained that it had acceded to the just demands of workers such as insurance, ESI, identity cards and provident fund, it did not yield ground on others like the reinstatement of three workers who had been suspended. Denying any involvement with the attack, Vinod Kamble, president of the Sanghatana stressed that the attackers should be punished. "No worker would want to develop enmity with their employer.” However, the suspended workers are without any source of income and should be reinstated and "we are demanding their rights,” he told IE.

Poona’s Kayani Bakery: customer favorite

Shocked at the sight of shut doors, customers returned disappointed on December 17. They were unaware that production work had resumed inside with unusual vigor, IE reported on December 19. Instead of the usual melee of workers, the six partners themselves had donned toques and with aprons tied over their sudreh-lenghas or shorts, got down to the business of churning out cakes, expecting to be ready to face the customers outside by 4 p.m. With Christmas approaching, the Bakery, which has an annual turnover of four crore rupees, was clearly facing an unprecedented crisis. "Our daily production, on an ordinary day is 1,200 to 1,300 cakes and 200 to 250 kilograms of biscuits and peaks on Saturdays at Rs 1.5 lakh. During Christmas and the New Year, our sales double,” revealed Pervez Kayani, the partner who handles the finances. "However, with the standoff we can manage only 700-800 cakes today.” Through the day the swell of customers turned into a veritable tide. Also queuing up outside were traders who buy the Bakery’s products and sell them in Bombay at a healthy profit.

So what caused this change of heart in the workers? "We did not want to cause any losses to the Bakery. Our well-being is intricately linked with the employers’ profits and we did not want to jeopardize our livelihoods… by staying off work at this crucial time,” admitted Kamble to the IE. He also averred that the workers would not cause hurt to their employers. "We are trying to find out details about the culprits behind the attack and are fully cooperating with the police. We want to put all the bad blood behind us, and strive for a strengthened and reliable worker-management relationship.” When the union conveyed its decision to resume duty, Rustom Kayani remarked: "They left on their own, and have decided to return of their own will. We have not coerced them in any way and our doors were always open for them.” Both sides were to meet to resolve all pending issues at a joint meeting scheduled at the Labor Commis­sioner’s office on December 26, the outcome of which is not known.