This will be the beginning of proposed agitation by the NUJW, said its president Subrata Mukherjee.

The mill owners have taken a stand to freeze the dearness allowance of workers from February 5. Mukherjee criticised the mill owners' body -- Indian Jute Mill Association -- saying that DA is the basic right of the workmen.

At a press conference organised by him, he said he has requested Citu and Aituc affiliated unions also to collectively oppose this issue.

He alleged that mill owners have always been citing reasons of poor profitability thereby avoiding payment of statutory dues. According to Mukherjee, the mill owners together are yet to pay around Rs 400 crore towardsworkers' dues like provident fund, employees' state insurance and gratuity.

He said while productivity has gone up, the Wage Bill as a percentage of total revenue has gone down.

According to Mukherjee, the number of workers in the industry has declined to 1.10 lakh in 1997-98 against 2.55 lakh in 1951.

With the reduced workforce, he said production has gone up to 16.78 lakh tonne from 10.21 lakh tonne during the same period.

The Wage Bill as a percentage of total revenue is now 27 per cent as compared to 51 per cent in 1951.

He pointed out that if the mills were showing huge losses, then there would not have been a scramble to buy the now-closed Caledonian Jute Mills. Out of the 59 mills operational in the state, 28 have been declared sick.

He felt that after the tea industry, jute is the second most profitable industry and the single largest employer in the state.