Labour strike at Bosch's plant enters 3rd day

Talks convened by labour commissioner inconclusive

The labour strike at the main plant of Bosch, the largest supplier of automotive parts to original equipment makers, continued for the third day on Saturday as the talks convened by the labour commissioner remained inconclusive on Friday.

The date for the next meeting between the management, trade union representatives and the labour commissioner has not been decided, the company sources said.

Production of parts, including common rail system for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, has come to a standstill at plant.

More than 2,500 employees affiliated to MICO Employees Association (MEA), the official trade union, have gone on “tool down” strike from end of the first shift on March 7, 2013 without serving a legal notice to the company management. The reason for strike is protest against suspension of an employee by the management, MEA sources said.

This is the second such strike at Bosch’s Bangalore plant in the last 18 months.

“Over the past three months, the workmen adopted a “go-slow” approach producing significantly lower than earlier attained levels. After deliberation, disciplinary action resulting in suspension of one of the identified workmen was taken. Opposing this, the MEA has decided to protest this suspension without any notice,” Bosch said.

MEA representatives, however, were unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts by this newspaper.
 
“The Bosch management is in constant touch with MEA and the Labour Commissioner’s office to restore normalcy at the earliest without any further loss of production,” the management said.

Currently, the labour commissioner is holding a conciliation meeting between the striking employees and Bosch management to settle the issue, the company sources said.

Earlier, in September and October 2011, the workers had launched a 16-day ‘tool-down’ strike to protest the company’s move to outsource certain jobs, thereby causing a production loss of close to Rs 100 crore. Before that, in March 2011, production was affected at the plant for a couple of days over the demand for a wage hike, an issue, which was settled amicably after Labour Commissioner, intervened.