Strike continues at Apollo Tyres Vadodara unit

Management stays away from meeting protesting workers

The workers' strike at Apollo Tyre's Waghodia plant near Vadodara is likely to get prolonged as the company management today stayed away from meeting protesting workers. The state labour department had called for a meeting between the striking workers, company management and representatives of the Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS) on Monday at labour department's office in Vadodara.

KO Shah, deputy labour commissioner, labour department, government of Gujarat, said, "No meeting took place as the company officials did not turn up, and the strike continues." Company officials could not be reached for a comment.

Close to 1,000 workers continued to stage protests near the factory premises, said Hussain Solanki, president, BMS. He added that, "Company officials had cited security reasons to refrain from meeting the protesting workers. I, therefore, had gone alone to the labour commissioner's office. However, nobody from the management turned up."

The workers have been protesting the company's refusal to officially recognise the newly formed workers' union BMS within the plant as well as suspension of two employees. Around 1300 workers are not reporting to work since last Tuesday, Solanki informed.

In 2010, the company had hiked the workers' wages by Rs 7,800 per month. The wage agreement had been signed till December 2012. Apart from the issues of recognition to the newly formed workers' union and re-instatement of suspended workers, Solanki said that the BMS also wanted the wage agreement to be revamped. "We have a problem with the gradation system mentioned in the wage settlement, whereby the company has duped unsuspecting workers", he said.

Sources in the district labour department, however, said that chances are weak that the workers' demands would be met. "They would have to unconditionally withdraw the strike in sometime", the source added.

Gujarat, off late, has witnessed labour unrests at major companies present in the state, including General Motors, Arvind Ltd, Reliance Industries and Hitachi Home and Life Solutions (India) Ltd over the last one and a half years.