Worker Takeover in Industry: The Kamani Tubes Experiment

"This book describes and analyzes a worker takeover of an ailing industrial business in India. The book opens with a thorough and useful overview of studies of worker ownership and takeover, which focuses on the challenge and contradictions these face¼. This is something of a specialist book. It is a case study (and a fascinating one) and a case study of a worker co-operative. The context is specific, but then it always is. This book should certainly be of interest to anyone with an academic, or practical concern to understand, inaugurate or participate in a workers' co-operative. It is well written, with skill and with an obvious concern for the workers whose stories are told here, and, despite its detail, reads rather like an unfolding detective story."--Organization Studies"This is a very down-to-earth account¼. The conclusion is equally practical in its approach, containing a list of 'do s' and 'don'ts for future worker buyouts. Time will have to tell whether or not, in the fast-changing economic climate being established in India, Srinivas' optimistic forecast for Kamani Tubes in particular and worker takeovers in general will hold fast."Journal of Far Eastern Business"This is an extremely well researched and informative book. It explores the process and the consequences of worker takeover of a sick industrial unit in India. The most interesting aspect of the study is the documentation by the author of the manner in which the company had been rendered sick by mismanagement and swindling on the part of owners."--Social Action"This book comes at an appropriate time."--Industrial Relations Journal"Srinivas has expressed his ideas lucidly and with conviction. He has done considerable amount of research for the book.... The book is a well-researched account of the worker takeover of Kamani Tubes. The author champions the cause of the workers in his inspired writing."--Management ReviewEmploying a social anthropological methodology, this book is a study of the process and consequences of the first-ever worker takeover of an industrial unit in India. The case of Kamani Tubes Limited is empirically detailed to critically understand theoretical concepts, such as worker buy-out, worker participation, worker control, and self-management. It traces the reasons for the shutdown of the unit, the marathon struggle of the workers to survive, the details of the takeover itself, and the functioning and operational performance of the unit under the workers' own management.For students and scholars in the fields of labor relations, industrial relations, and management studies, this book is a must.