MIFCO (Mizoram food and allied industries limited) Employees Association (MEA) said in a statement today that it has resorted to this move as they ''have to look for other sources of income'' to feed themselves and their families.
The PSU employees have allegedly not been paid for seven months now.
''As we have not received any positive response from the government after we disclosed our problems to the press on August 24, we now have no choice but to stop going to work and look for other sources of income to earn a living,'' the statement said.
The employees have no faith in state Industries Minister S Hiato's words, reported in the media, that Rs 50 lakh has been allocated to the PSU.
''There is no reality in the minister's comforting words. On the contrary, the industries commissioner has stated that this money (Rs 50 lakh) would be shared with the other PSUs under the state government,'' the MEA statement said.
''Anyway, Rs 50 lakh is too meagre a sum to bail out MIFCO from the current crisis,'' it added.
MIFCO employees have apologised to the public, especially fruit growers who supplied raw materials to different MIFCO's food processing units, for the ''unavoidable circumstances''.
The employees' strike will badly affect the four major projects of MIFCO - fruit processing at Chhingchhip, food park at Chhingchhip te, food processing center at Sairang and pork and chicken processing at Zemabawk.