Even more deplorable is the manner in which the three employees have been holding the company to ransom. Their colleagues are forced to strike more out of coercion than their own free will. In the case of Bata, it is all the more tragic, as the company has just begun to turn around. The Batanagar factory employs 6,500 men and accounts for more than 50 per cent of the company's footwear production.

A solitary day's closure amounts to a production loss of about 1 lakh pairs, the average daily output at the factory. Moreover, Bata has an employee cost to turnover ratio of around 20 per cent. This is avery high ratio compared with other players in the industry or for that matter any industry. In this backdrop, it is in the workers' interest to co-operate as much as possible in turning the company around.

The trouble with the unions, especially in West Bengal, is that they are living in a fool's paradise. They seem unable to understand that in an environment of liberalisation and globalisation, they can no longer afford the luxury of strikes. Militant unions have been responsible for the capital flight out of the state, and although the state government has tried to entice investment, it is clear that the government has no control on militancy at the ground level. The state government should lose no time in making the Bata union come to its senses.