Strikes in Indian Automobile Companies


anjan_c2007

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This thread was necessary I thought to make our fellow members and surfers aware of strikes and lockouts going on currently, in one or many India based automobile manufacturing or assembling plants. The information can be updated from time to time as and when a strike or a lockout reported here ceases and /or a new one comes into effect.

Strikes are not so common these days as used to happen about two decades or so back due to some obvious reasons.

To begin with there's a strike on at the Mahindra and Mahindra plant in Nashik since about two weeks.So no Xylos and Scorpios are rolling out from there. Our sympathies with those who have booked these and are waiting endlessly to own one.

There's another strike at the Hyundai Motors India Ltd plant near Chennai. The management had openly warned the strikers, that  a part of the i 20 production will be shifted to Europe to keep up with the demands and export committments. The i20 waiting list is quite long and again our sympathies here with prospective buyers.

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M&M had just showed excellent figures for the month of April, now things are going to slide down for the moment. Hope things get settled soon.

Similar with Hyundai, they were finding their hands full with the newely launched i20, now customers would have to wait longer.
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Strikes and militant unions can never be positive. It pushes up costs, compromises quality and is not good for end car user. Japan car indusry's success is thanks to deep understanding and respect between the car company and its employees

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Yesterday 19th May, the M& M strike was called off by the workers union at the Nashik plant.It was due to the Chief Security Officer having a tete-a-tete with an union leader.

Now expect the Xylos, Logans, Scorpios and Boleros ( all made at the Nashik plant) to roll out and land into the showrooms and then with the keys handed over, onto the roads.

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Yup read this in news..

OT, there was also strike at Nestle's pantanagar plant which ended the same day as of M&M...

 

BTW, any updates on Hyundai's strike, Hyundai was planning to shift the production of i20 to some other country(i think in Europe) due to strike..
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  • 4 months later...

Currently in the news is the two wheeler giant Honda Motorcycles and Scooters Ltd (HMSL), whose factory is located near Gurgaon, Haryana. The employees are going slow and the production is down by some nearly 50% going by press reports. They are working but doing things slowly. Now this is the festival season and it is around this time that most automobile manufacturers record the most growth during the twelve month span.

As a result, HMSL bikes and scooters are having long waiting lists in most showrooms, around the country. their profitability is also bound to be hit.

HMSL had issued a pressnote saying that they are not averse to shifting the entire production to some other location that is conducive for the effective functioning of their plant.

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  • 1 month later...

Again its Strike News this time at HMIL ,Tamil Nadu. Recently the i20 production was affected by a strike in April, May and also June 2009 and HMIL had threatened to shift base elsewhere.

This time its due to some trade union elections and so on.For more details here this link:

Hyundai workers threaten strike again

anjan_c20072009-11-29 15:26:29

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  • 5 months later...

Was reading about the recent strike and work slowdown at Exide's Haryana plant. The output of HH was severely affected and later for sometime they sold bikes without batteries. HMSL (Honda) has said that it will import batteries from China to make up for the shortfall.

Guess what will happen to some two wheelers that have only the self starter and no kick start?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks to the dying-need of many automakers to cut costs, parts and sub-assemblies are imported from many firms from many parts of the world.  This is true for almost all automakers now. 

If for some reason, `strike' strikes a firm in Gurgaon or Sriperambadur, GM or FORD may close production in Detroit.  Or, vice versa. 

Whether it is liked by some or is purely unavoidable for all, it is a menace that needs to be addressed.

Now, we can no longer ignore this increasing tendency.

It is bad for our brand image abroad.  And it, certainly is, killing our exports to such auto majors worldwide.

.
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@anjan

Honda (car maker) had the same problem causing low sales previous month. Their supplies was hugely decreased causing a reportedly 50% month on month decrease in sales of City and Civic.

Its news to me .Thanks Rahul for that information. Sometime in July-August 2003,there was a strike at Honda Siel when they were making the first model of the City here. The media was talking  of the workmen being less motivated and hence predicted that the quality of cars will suffer.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The latest strike since yesterday has affected production at the Hyundai Motors plant in Sriperimbudur, TN, where some 10,000 workers are employed. Some 60 had been terminated for indiscipline last year, whom the union wants to be reinstated. the management is acting tough.So the production has come to a halt.

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I think there shouldn't be any kind of unions . When the company is trying to get good discipline then its good . I think to end this Hyundai should fire all the employees and get fresh vacancy (remember many educated people are still jobless) . It might take Hyundai to train them about 20 days  but then from future onwards no one will dare to strike .

I would agree to a strike if the company is firing an employee w/o a reason but this is not accepted.

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Hyundai has faced most no. of strikes. It needs to look into other companies like MS and how they manage their much larger labor force.

@rssh

Their is a need for unions. I will take an example from college. Suppose your college changes a rule suddenly which affects a lot of students. Then their needs to be some one who will unify and act as the messenger from the students.

This is why government has made it mandatory for companies to have an employees and labor unions. However use of it to extort something unjustified from the management is not its purpose and should not be done

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Thankfully the strike has been called off after a settlement was recahed between the management and the union. It was agreed that cases of 35 workers will be looked into for restoration of their services out of the 60.

The TN government played a mediators role during the parleys.The Sriperimbudur plant produces about 2000 cars a day.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Was reading about the recent strike and work slowdown at Exide's Haryana plant. The output of HH was severely affected and later for sometime they sold bikes without batteries. HMSL (Honda) has said that it will import batteries from China to make up for the shortfall.

Guess what will happen to some two wheelers that have only the self starter and no kick start?

The fallout of this strike is still being felt. Honda Activa batteries of reputed makes like Amaron and Exide are in short supply in the market.Neither the Exide nor the Amaron dealers (one of the largest dealer's) in my city had stock of the battery for the Honda Activa.They attribute this shortage to all the replacement market batteries being demanded by HMSL who had a harrowing time recently selling scooters without batteries when there was a strike in the Exide plant in Haryana. A particular dealer told me he had two Amco batteries left with him.

anjan_c20072010-06-21 18:19:17

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  • 1 month later...

Was reading about the impending strike that the Hyundai Motor India Ltd employees are likely to call.The reason as the press says that some employees of the 60 terminated had been reinstated , but more than 30 of them had been advised to move court by HMIL.They disagree and want a full reinstatement of all the 60 employees whose services were terminated.

The festival season is approaching and any strike may affect supplies to the showrooms.

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When you have over active politicians (I guess Tamil Nadu lot may take the cake)then labour militancy follows. For momentary gain they are quite willing to sacrifice long term interests. Now with some states (esp. Gujarat) actively vying for auto industry the long term damage is on nobody's radar.

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  • 2 months later...

Its Now at GM-Halol:

 

Employees demand hike in salary; say management has been taking them for a ride

Demanding hike in wages, nearly 800 workers at the Halol unit of General Motors India went on a strike on Friday morning, forcing the company to stop production. This comes close on the heels of the announcement made about expansion of the plant by GM India president and Managing Director Karl Slym. Negotiations between the company and union leaders to end the strike was on till late in the evening.

GM-India Vice-President P Balendran said,
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  • 4 months later...

Trouble at Ford and GM with their Indian plants:

Ford, Marimalai Nagar, near Chennai- The 4600 employees at the Marmalai Nagar plant had given a 15 day strike notice on 7/3/2011 for their strike effective 22/03/2011.The demands include recognition of the union, discontinuing the system of leave period treatment of workers, when ever there is a maintenance shutdown and lastly demand for no extra working time to compensate for the 10 minute tea break.

GM, Halol, Gujarat- They say the 9 day strike has resulted in a loss pf production of 700 cars.GM has threatened to fire 250 employees.According to the state government the strike is illegal. The employees are protesting transfer of some employees to dealerships from the plant.They also opposed a long term wage agreement which the management has wanted.

The Halol facility produces premium hatchback Aveo U-Va, entry-level

sedan Aveo, mid-sized sedan Optra, premium sedan Cruze and multi-utility

vehicle Tavera.Besides Halol, GM India has another plant at

Talegaon in Maharashtra with an installed capacity of 1.4 lakh (140,000)

units per year. It currently produces compact cars Spark and Beat.

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