The Film Studio Setting and Allied Mazdoor Union has written a letter to its parent body, the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), asking it to help it to acquire possession of its office from “a handful of illegal and unauthorised hooligans” of the Union (FSS&AMU), who have been occupying the office premises illegally since 2015. The letter laments the fact that despite presenting its case to the FWICE right from 2015, the FWICE had failed to take any action whatsoever.
The letter goes on to blame the same hooligans for driving Marathi film art director Raju Sapte to suicide on 2nd July, 2021. It adds, “The main accused, Gangeshwarlal Srivastava alias Sanju, Rakesh Maurya and their accomplices have been found guilty in the suicide case of Raju Sapte under sections 120-B, 306, 34, 384, 420, 386, 387, 506, 406 of the Indian Penal Code. Some are in prison and some are absconding.” The letter further states that because of this incident, salaries of workers, worth crores of rupees, are stuck in the bank account of the Union. Resultantly, thousands of worker-members of the FSS&AMU are facing extremely difficult times and even starvation during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The letter asks the FWICE to intervene in the matter for the speedy payment of salaries of the members of the FSS&AMU. It ends with a threat to the FWICE that in the event salaries are not disbursed at an early date and possession of the Union’s office is not given to the official executive committee, the worker-members of the FSS&AMU will be forced to resort to a strike at the FWICE office.