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31 January, 2011
Cements workers and others of Jindal Cement and its parent, Indian steel conglomerate Jindal Group or JSW, had a demonstration busted up by riot police firing gunshots over their heads in Gadivemula, India. The 4,000 demonstrators were protesting on 23 January over the misery sum Jindal offered to pay the family of a construction worker who fell and died at the cement plant.
Managers called area Kurnool police used near-deadly force to disperse the workers, who then hurled rocks and other objects at police, damaging a police vehicle. Some workers were injured when they jostled with police while trying to gain entry to the cement plant.
Workers claim it was Jindal’s negligence that led to the death of the 43-year-old worker, Bikakalagudur, who fell from a high beam while employed on construction of the company’s Gadivemula cement works.
Jindal Cement at first offered to pay only one-half the standard ex-gratia to the dead worker’s family.
Mumbai-based JSW Group, a US$8 billion concern, is busy constructing cement plants adjacent to many of the company’s steel mills in order to take advantage of slag and flyash for use in cement manufacture.