The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: September 28, 2008

Official News page 6


REAL LIFE NEWS: THE DANGERS OF BEING A BAD BOSS

by Hazed

You usually assume that in business, it's the bosses that have all the power. They can be as mean to the employees as they like, and what can the little people do? If they complain, they will get fired, so they just have to take it.

But maybe not. A news story last week showed workers standing up for themselves - in a very drastic fashion. The headline of the story says it all: "Sacked Indian workers beat chief exec to death." That's right, the workers decided they were mad as hell and they weren't going to take it any more... and how!

The murdered boss was the chief executive of Graziana Transmissioni India, a car parts factory in Uttar Pradesh state in India. He was attempting to resolve an extended industrial dispute which had led to the dismissal of hundreds of employees. However, things did not go well, and when the talks got nasty, the ex-employees started to vandalize the machinery. The boss, Lalit Kishore Cloudhary, attempted to reason with them but they turned on him and assaulted him with iron rods, beating him to death.

Police arrested 63 former employees in connection with Choudhury's murder, and another 73 are facing charges of disturbing the peace. Dozens are in hospital, having been injured in the mayhem.

Demonstrators have blamed "outsiders" for the tragedy, as a former worker told the Hindustan Times: "We were demonstrating peacefully to get our jobs back. Outsiders may have assaulted the CEO leading to his death. Firing by the guards agitated workers and they clashed with the staff."

This is possibly taking "power to the people" just a little too far - but it's an indication that if you push people, one day they are going to push back. Bosses be warned.


Fed2 Star index Previous issues Fed 2 home page