Film workers to go on strike from Wednesday

Mumbai, May 5 (IANS) The members of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), who were waiting for the producers' nod regarding the hike in daily wages of the workers and technicians, have finally decided to go on strike from Wednesday morning.

Federation president Kamlesh Pandey confirmed the news to IANS and said: "Yes, from tomorrow (Wednesday) morning starting 6.00 clock we are going on co-operation strike. We will also be having a rally at Sankarman studio (in Goregaon ) tomorrow (Wednesday)."

"The producers have been threatening our members and technicians that they will fire them but, we have our unity in place and have decided to stand together and fight for this," he further added.

Both FWICE and some of the producers had an unofficial meeting few days back to discuss the issue, but could not arrive at an agreeable solution. And following this, the FWICE has decided to go on strike.

"We have 22 associations under us which includes 2.5 lakh members and technicians. The strike will be only on Hindi films and Hindi TV series that will be shot in Mumbai, Konkan and Gujarat," said Pandey.