As of Sunday, the standoff between the Telugu Film Industry Employees Federation and producers has deepened after workers rejected the latest proposal for a divided and phased wage hike. The workers have been on a strike for three days now.
“Our talks have failed, and we reject their new proposal for a gradual wage hike,” Federation president Anil Vallabhaneni said on Sunday in his interaction with media, “During discussions, producers initially assured us they would look into our wage hike demand, but later they changed their stand and offered hikes to only 13 unions out of 24. This is clearly meant to break our unity, and our members find it totally unacceptable.”
The Federation had originally demanded a 30% wage hike for all 10,000 daily wage workers. Vallabhaneni said they were willing to negotiate for less but opposed the “selective” approach. “They never mentioned a gradual hike during our meeting, but later announced different slabs we were not aware of. Our demand remains the same, treat all daily wage workers equally, instead of creating divisions for their convenience,” he said.
Producers had proposed a “gradual hike formula” for workers earning less than Rs 2,000 per day, a 15% increase in the first year and 5% each in the following two years; for those earning under Rs 1,000, a 20% first-year rise followed by 5% in the next two years. These terms are now void following the union’s rejection.
The dispute has already halted several shoots. While some producers have avoided making strong public statements, TG Vishwa Prasad of People Media Factory has openly criticised the Federation in his recent interview, describing it as a “unions mafia” and sending a legal notice against the strike. The Federation, in turn, has declared it will not work on his productions until a court rules on the matter.
The conflict has drawn attention to a 2017 Competition Commission of India ruling that prevents cine unions from barring the hiring of non-members, a precedent that, if enforced, could significantly weaken union influence. But recently the producers council opened a portal to accept applications for skill-based non-union workers.
With both sides unwilling to budge, the impasse threatens to disrupt the industry further. Federation leaders maintain they have “no intention to shut down the industry” but insist they are “fighting for the livelihood” of thousands of workers. For now, the issue remains unresolved.
