FAISALABAD, July 26: The strike by sizing factories took a serious turn when owners of over 100 powerlooms, dyeing, bleaching and calendering mills closed their units here on Saturday.

The strike by over 400 sizing units of the country has entered the 6th consecutive day which forced the owners of over 100 textile ancillary units to close their factories rendering thousands of daily-wage workers jobless.

This correspondent took a round of industrial areas of Sidhupura, Ghulam Muhammadabad, Faizabad, Dogranwan Road, Chak Jhumra, Khurrianwala, Bhaiwala, Small Industrial Estate, and other industrial-cum-residential areas of the city and found hundreds of workers sitting idle outside their factories.

The preparation of cloth and its made-ups is a task of about half a dozen units and the strike by a major component — sizing industries — forced the others to reduce their working hours or close their factories. If the strike and closure of other units continue for some days more, it would become difficult for the spinning mills to keep their wheels moving.

The trading activities on local cotton yarn market and other cloth markets have also come to a standstill and major buyers preferred to stay on sidelines due to strike threats by the All Pakistan Cotton Powerlooms Association and Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association.