ON May 20, 2015, over 15,000 powerloom workers from all four major powerloom centres of Maharashtra held a large and militant rally at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. Although it was held under the banner of the Powerloom Workers Joint Action Committee, the mobilisation of the CITU was by far the largest. Over 10,000 workers came from Bhiwandi in Thane district, over 3,000 from Ichalkaranji in Kolhapur district, over 1,000 from Solapur in Solapur district and a representative section came from Malegaon in Nashik district.

The three main demands of the rally were: implementation of minimum wage which has not been done for several years; social security measures for powerloom workers which have also been completely neglected by successive state governments; and a special allowance for their housing needs.

The rally was led and addressed by CITU state president Narasayya Adam, state general secretary Dr D L Karad; and by CITU leaders Sunil Chavan, Mariam Dhawale, Adv Ramdas Waingade (Bhiwandi); Datta Mane, A B Patil (Ichalkaranji); M H Shaikh, Venkatesh Kongari (Solapur); and Sitaram Thombre (Malegaon). Other CITU leaders who spoke were Vasant Pawar, K R Raghu, Adv Armaity Irani, Shailendra Kamble, Joy Xavier and Mumtaz Shaikh.

Hanmantu Lohar (AITUC), Vijay Khane (HMS), Shamrao Kulkarni (INTUC), Gokul Patil (BMS), Uday Bhat (Sarva Shramik Sangh), Vishnu Karampuri and Rajendra Nikam (Kamgar Sena), Shivanand Patil (Kamgar Kalyan Sangh) and Ananda Gurav (General Labour Union) also addressed the rally.

After waiting for over five hours in the scorching sun, when the chief minister did not give time for meeting the delegation, at the call of CITU, thousands of workers marched across Azad Maidan in the direction of Mantralaya (secretariat) with the aim of breaking the police cordon. The police were completely taken aback, they ran to the other side of the Maidan and pleaded with the workers to go back since they would secure an appointment with the chief minister that day itself.

Finally, in the evening BJP chief minister Devendra Phadnavis met the delegation and agreed to take a favourable decision about all the three above demands within 15 days. The leaders then told the workers that if this assurance was not implemented, there would be huge demonstrations of powerloom workers in each district and these would be followed by a strike. The rally then concluded late evening with great enthusiasm and with the determination to continue the struggle for their rights until their demands were achieved.