By IANS,
Mumbai : Over 300 workers of the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), the Shiv Sena’s labour wing, Wednesday vandalised the Hotel Intercontinental Grand to protest the sacking of at least 21 employees, a party leader said.
BKS president Suryakant Mahadik told IANS that the hotel sacked its employees for trying to form a labour union with affiliation to BKS.
“When the workers persisted in their efforts to unite the hotel employees under the BKS flag, they were sacked without any notice or compensation six months ago,” Mahadik said.
Mahadik said the hotel management “threw us a challenge by vowing to never let the BKS form a union on its premises”.
Agitated by this, over 300 BKS men led by Mahadik, the Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha Member Sanjay Raut and legislator Anil Parab marched to the hotel to protest its “anti-labour policies”.
Admitting that some BKS workers clambered up the gates and vandalised the hotel lobby and broke glass doors and windows, Mahadik claimed that “the hotel management provoked my workers into causing damage in the premises”.
“The police baton charged us but we are used to police caning,” he added.
Despite repeated attempts by IANS, police and the hotel’s management were unavailable for comment.
The hotel is located barely two kms from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and is a favourite among business travellers.
Mahadik said that if the management fails to heed its demand that the sacked employees be reinstated and a BKS union formed in the hotel by this evening, the group will “take further steps”.