On 23 February, shop managers and employees of the Bata shoe company went on a one-day strike in protest against the various anti-worker initiatives, including working on Sundays, of the Bata management. The strike was called by the Bata Shoe Workers’ Union, Faridabad and other unions.

The managers and employees of various Bata shops all over India were agitating against the large scale victimisation moves that the management resorted to. In resistance to the united move of the employees, the management dismissed 40 shops managers and 130 shop employees. Besides the dismissal, the management locked the shops, the managers of which were dismissed. According to the employees on strike, this move of the management was its first step to the closing down of 200 shops and the opening up of franchises, and ruthlessly going on to outsourcing market operations.

The employees on strike wanted the victimization, including dismissals and transfers, to stop and the status quo restored.

BATA, the giant conglomerate, with its major grip on the shoe market in India is all set to be part of the great retail movement in India. P.M. Sinha, Chairman of BATA India Ltd, has already announced the company’s decision to come up with fresh initiatives to facilitate substantial growth in its retail business. The company’s plan to open new stores, refurbish existing ones and create innovative product lines had already been initiated in the year 2004.

The management justified the closure of 60 stores in 2005 by declaring them ‘unviable and cash drain stores’. The outsourced manufacturing of Bata is already routed through tax holiday States such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. The company is exploring third party manufacturing units in other tax-free States such as Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.