I had come to Coimbatore from south, now I went from north. The mill that I joined was known as the mill managed by Tata's of south India, Kothari's. The Manager was well known as tough technical technocrat. The mill being a composite mill it was interesting to work. This mill had the highest number of qualified experienced good well understanding technical staff. The administration was handled by competent personal and the layout was good for material transport and supervision. The technical staff were taken from their residences by mill car in all 3 shifts as a security measure. The mill had very good new machines in spinning and weaving and it's cloth also was exported.
My first day was a talk with Asst Manager cum Spinning Master who gave me a simple briefing on the work and my duties and responsibilities as a shift in charge. He was also interested in my work in Bombay and earlier work in Madurai and local Mills. He was all smiles knowing why I left Coimbatore and went to Bombay. He had studied textiles in Bombay and he was a classmate of my Mill Manager which he did not tell but I came to know later. This mill had another sister mills in another part of the city on the outskirts and was known as the best mills in south India for it's yarn quality. The mill was managed by another classmate of my mill who was very independent and he had set up the mill in such a way. it was not followed by any mill and no one tried to follow his system. No one knew his system and technique. This was a mill, where there was no stock of his production. However, my mill never tried to introduce his system or practice. We were No 1 Mill always and his mill was No2 Mills always.
Both mills were controlled by Head Office at Madras and there was a General Manager also who was for consultations only on both mill performance and technical matters. The unit managers were more powerful and took all decisions which were mostly approved.
This mill had 40,000 spindles plus 300 looms and the mill in Bombay had 1,25,000 spindles and 3,000 looms. So it was not a tough job to supervise this mills. I also had a Asst to help me in any work and he was a great help. When I was in day Shift there would one Asst Spinning Master in day shift and another to look after spinning preparatory and spinning were was taking instructions from Spinning Master and he was looking after yarn requirement from weaving and other issues. It was a big job for them I waited for a month and made a black board on weaving requirement of yarn and machines running and their numbers and Production. For Warp and Weft. AS I wrote a board Weg people would not talk with Asst Spinning Master as they have to see the board and go. I would personally go and see there is no yarn shortage and the Weaving Master was happy.
Many Spinning Machines were not set to wind the yarn to give full production. I was knowing this problem so when I was In day shift I worked with Maintenance crew and made them set the machines to give maximum yarn wound fully on the spindles and for this work the Asst Spinning Masters did not say anything. It seems this was the main problem and therefore senior Asst Spinning master may have kept quite.
Weaving Department had BC Cheese Winding automatic Machine as I was aware of the problem of these machines, if yarn quality of weaving warp yarn was bad they will have problem with yarn shortage so I increased the spinning machines and maintained and did not ask the Asst spinning Masters. There was yarn shortage for this for reeling section and all the ladies chewing Vethal Pak (PAN) would come and no one liked their presence. Lot of unworkable cheeses were be accumulated in weaving I would ask Weaving Shift In Charge to allow to take few cheeses badly damaged around 300 kg and take 500 kg and give it to reeling. There were few problems every now and then in spinning or weaving or winding I would tackle these petty problems and never take any body's assistance. After some time the Sr.Asst Spinning Master resigned. His post was not filled but there was a Asst Spinning Master who was in Charge of Spinning Preparatory Department he was asked to look after. The 3 shift was called A shift, B Shift and C shift. I was in charge of C shift. C Shift was supposed to be the worst shift with labour problems and production.
I was told that the mill was working only 2 shifts and when a extra shift was introduced aa the bad workers in both A & B shifts were sent to C shift which was not controllable. After several months it was said C shift is better as I had handled the labour better. What I did was to see people who absented only in 3rd shift were not given leave. They would not bother after 3 days of absenting I would fine them 25 paisa they would not bother again they would absent I would again fine them after my 3rd fine I would inform the Labor Officer to take action and he would suspend them for 1 day they would not bother this would be followed for suspension for 2 days and followed by 3 days and next he would be terminated. Now they would go to labour Leaders and they would go to Mill Manager. Mill Manager who had appointed me was happy that some discipline was enforced and he would drag the issue for months. Finally he would say the leader can enroll another worker but he will not take a worker he has terminated. The leader liked this and a bad worker was eliminated permanently. A new worker would be a trainee and called as substitute.
He was paid only if was engaged in place of a permanent worker if there was no vacancy he would go home. All such workers going home usually went out with out informing me or shift Asst but I told them to take my signature on their Card and go. Some times I would select few good workers and keep them extra on some extra work. This had good effect and it made some few bad behavior workers come to me and ask me to give work to his person who was a relative I would agree and he would turn to be a loyal worker. Such labour control technic was in practice in Bombay.
My shift was fully under control, my Asst could manage the shift when ever I was on leave, this was not so earlier when another person would take my place from another shift which was in a day shift. Such was the effect that I could feel it after several months of my work. He did not disturb me in my cabin and used to handle all issues himself independently.
I was in my 2nd year in this mill when a letter from my mother called me to go over to my place as my marriage was to be fixed since there was a proposal and I had to see the girl. Marriage was something that had never thought and planed. I consulted few of my close friends they were all happy. A worker in my mill told me that my future is going to be very lucky. No body told me anything but all were happy. I asked another friend my salary may not be sufficient to be married he said you don't worry about that. I took 5 days leave and went home.
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