In a scathing letter, the producers' association slams the cine workers union for claiming to be the only federation controlling workers, technicians and artistes’ associations in western India.
IMPPA challenges FWICE claim of five lakh members; alleges that it is less than 50,000
Mumbai - 09 Jun 2020 12:31 IST
Our Correspondent
The Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association (IMPPA) has slammed the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees (FWICE) for allegedly claiming to be the only federation controlling workers, technicians and artistes’ associations in Western India even while dealing with the state and central government.
But this is just one item out of the list of accusations shared by IMPPA in a scathing letter, a copy of which is with Cinestaan.com.
The letter signed by IMPPA president TP Aggarwal said, “You also claim about having member-to-member understanding with all the producer associations as a result of which you refuse to allow producers to work with non-members of your affiliates by even stating that your members will walk out of the sets and will not cooperate with any producer employing non-members.”
The IMPPA alleged that the FWICE is doing this to falsely claim that they represent five lakh workers. “Whereas in actual fact the number of cine workers of your affiliates is actually less than 50,000, as confirmed by the enclosed video recording of your treasurer Mr Gangeshwarlal Shrivastava,” said the letter.
The IMPPA also accused FWICE members of halting shoots and imposing penalties on non-members, which they said is “illegal” and “against the law of the land.” IMPPA also claimed to have sent various letters to FWICE regarding these issues but was not taken seriously.
In another another allegation, the IMPPA said, “Your latest demand made in the media to appoint inspectors to ensure compliance of the SOPs declared by the government is nothing but another form of imposing your vigilance committee so that you can force producers to work only with members of your affiliates, whereas you have no power or authority to do so.”
Ending the letter with a warning, IMPPA said, “Everybody, more particularly you and your affiliates, have to realize that times have changed and one cannot dictate terms. Everybody will have to work jointly and extend full cooperation, as otherwise the producers and the industry will not be able to survive, and the only way out can be if everyone is together and works jointly for survival without bothering about membership of associations or minimum wage agreements.”
