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20-09-2024
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI/ CHENNAI: For the past 11 days, about 1,500 workers of South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics have been striking work in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, leading to major disruptions in production.
The plant in Chennai city, one of Samsung’s two factories in India, employs nearly 2,000 workers and produces home appliances, contributing about a third to the company’s annual $12bn (£9bn) revenue in India.
The striking workers gather at a plot of land near the 17-year-old factory daily, demanding that Samsung recognise their newly-formed labour union – the Samsung India Labour Welfare Union (SILWU). They say that only a union can help them negotiate better wages and working hours with the management.
The protest, one of the largest Samsung has seen in recent years, comes even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been courting foreign investment by positioning India as a viable alternative to China for manufacturing activities.
Samsung India has released a statement saying that the welfare of its workers was its top priority. “We have initiated discussions with our workers at the Chennai plant to resolve all issues at the earliest,” it said.
Hours earlier, the police had detained around 104 workers for undertaking a protest march without permission. The protesters were released in the evening.
“The workers have decided to strike work indefinitely till their demands are met,” said A Soundararajan, member of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu), backed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Citu has backed the new union in the factory.
The workers have three key demands: Samsung must recognize the new union, allow collective bargaining, and reject competing unions as about 90% of the workforce belongs to SILWU, said Soundararajan. Workers, earning an average of 25,000 rupees ($298; £226) a month, are demanding staggered raises totalling a 50% increase over the next three years, according to Citu.
Citu also alleged that workers at the plant were being “pressurized to finish each product like a refrigerator, washing machine, or TV within 10-15 seconds”, work non-stop for four to five hours at a stretch, and do their jobs in unsafe conditions.
Soundararajan also alleged that workers were pressurized by the management to leave the new union and that their families were threatened as well.
The BBC has sent Samsung India a detailed set of questions for a response.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu’s Labor Welfare Minister CV Ganesan said he had assured union officials that talks were under way to resolve their issues. “We will fulfil the demands of the workers,” he said.
Sijo, a protester, said that he arrives at the protest site daily at 08:00 IST (02:30 GMT) and stays until 17:00, joining hundreds of workers in their blue Samsung India uniforms.
The union arranges for lunch and water for the protesters, while a makeshift cloth tent protects them from the elements. There are no washroom facilities, so the workers use the outdoors.
“Since the factory was set up, employees have been working without complaints or a union but things have been getting bad over the past couple of years, and now, we need the support of a union,” Sijo said.
He added that his pay doesn’t keep pace with the cost of living and that this has put a strain of his family’s finances. Up until 2020, the Samsung Group was known for not allowing unions to represent its workers but things changed after the company came under intense public scrutiny after its chairman was prosecuted for market manipulation and bribery.
