NEW DELHI- Noose around Labour Unions

NEW DELHI Noose around Labour Unions B M THE government of Indira Gandhi has passed on from talking tough to acting tough towards labour. The government began by making appeals to workers and their unions, asking thorn to observe 'discipline' in the interest of increasing production and controlling prices. At that time only some 'anti-social elements' among workers were held responsible for creating trouble and the government claimed it wanted to isolate these from the 'responsible and responsive' trade union movement. For a briet while thereafter, it claimed that an improvement in industrial relations had been achieved after its return to power. The fall in number of mandays lost owing to industrial disputes, during the first nine months of last year, was widely publicised. Evidently, it has now decided that the time has come when appeals and exhortations will not do and when the kid-glove must be given up for the mailed fist.