On 13 April 2007, the management and some hooligans, supported by the police, attacked a peaceful condolence meeting in Bangalore, Karnataka, organised by the Garment and Textile Workers’ Union (GATWU), in memory of Gayathri, a 19-year-old woman worker who lost her life in an accident. On 12 April 2007, Gayathri, who was employed in Bombay Rayon Fashions, was hit by a bus contracted by the factory, in front of the factory gate. 

Bombay Rayon Fashions, a garment factory located at Kengeri on Mysore Road, has six factories in Bangalore. Most of these factories produce garments largely for global clothing brands such as H&M, T-N, C&A and Angelo Litrico.  

GATWU organised a condolence meeting around a garlanded photograph of Gayathri in a makeshift shed at a vacant, unused public land, 200 m away from the factory gate.  GATWU alleged that at 5.45 p.m., more than 50 men, most of them managerial staff of the factory and about 15 other hooligans rushed to the meeting spot, dragged down the temporary shelter and carried away parts of the pubic address system. The wooden bars of the shelter were thrown on one woman union activist. According to GATWU, the group that attacked the shelter was led by Anand, a managerial staff member of the factory.

The attackers then surrounded the union General Secretary Rukmini and other women union activists, abused them in foul language, pulled at their clothes and snatched the leaflets of the meeting. According to the union representatives, the group that attacked the women activists was led by Ashok and Ramesh, the production managers of the company. The union condemned the passive attitude of the police, who were witnesses to the entire heinous attack. Criminal complaints had been filed on earlier occasions with the police against Ashok and Ramesh.

According to a press release issued by GATWU, a group led by the general manager, Narayan Pujari, other management personnel and the goons surrounded union Vice President Jayaram and threatened him with dire consequences if he attempted to organise workers. Jayaram too was pushed around by the management personnel and the hooligans, who smelled strongly of alcohol. According to the union, the other managerial staff, who led the attack, included Vasanth Pujari, Bhaskar, Gangadhar, Shivaraj and Girish, Vijay and Venkatesh.

The press release further states that the Assistant Sub-Inspector of police and the hoysala (patrol van) had gone to the factory around 4.30 p.m., and had had discussions with the management. According to the union authorities, they had come to an agreement with the management, the result of which forced them to be inactive during the attack. It was stated that even the police women present witnessed the attack on women activists passively.

The union members alleged that when the members of the union had gone to the Kengeri police station earlier in the day to inform them in advance about the condolence meeting, they had seen Narayan Pujari and the human resources manager Muniraju at the police station.

Bombay Rayon Fashions opened their factory on Mysore Road in February 2006. Ever since it started functioning, the management has been terrorising the women workers, who are largely from poor rural families of Ramanagaram taluka and Channapatna taluka. Many women workers hail from marginal farmer families and landless families of the constituency of the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Women workers are routinely abused and harassed by the management, usually to meet high production targets. Workers report that they are forced to work for 10 to 12 hours daily without overtime payment and that they are also often beaten.

GATWU complained to various state and central government authorities, urging legal action against the company and the erring police officials. The union has urged global brands such as H&M to take cognisance of the illegal actions of the management against workers and workers’ organisations, and to take remedial steps. It has also appealed to all for support and solidarity to the democratic rights of workers to associate freely without any fear of repression.