Samsung India strike puts spotlight on powerful Indian labour group
Labour group CITU-backed Samsung strike enters fifth day
The protests cast shadow on Indian PM Modi's manufacturing goals
Group plans unions at electronics firms Flex and Sanmina
By Munsif Vengattil and Praveen Paramasivam
CHENNAI, Sept 13 (Reuters) -A labour strike in India that has disrupted production at a Samsung plant has put the spotlight on a politically-backed worker group which quietly mobilized employees of the South Korean company and now plans to extend its efforts in the country's electronics sector.
The Samsung protests over low wages, now in their fifth day, cast a shadow on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan of courting foreign investors to "Make in India" and tripling electronics production to $500 billion in six years.
From Foxconn to Micron, companies have been lured to more business friendly policies and cheap labour under Modi's decade-long rule, especially as foreign manufacturing giants look to diversify their supply chains beyond the powerhouse of China.
On Friday,hundreds of protesting workers wearing blue-coloured Samsung shirts continued to sit inside makeshift tents near the home appliances plant in southern state of Tamil Nadu, sporting red caps with the acronym CITU.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) is backed by India's most influential hard-left political party and has 6.6 million worker members. It demands worker-friendly measures, though it has historically focused more on auto sectors and companies like Hyundai.
While employees at companies like Samsung can unionize on their own, partnering with groups like CITU, which was started in 1970, is seen by some workers as a way to garner more national support and get their voice better heard by companies.
With the Samsung strike, CITU is now planning to make inroads into the electronics manufacturing sector which is growing at a rapid pace but where companies "are not doing wage revisions properly," said S Kannan, its Tamil Nadu deputy general secretary.
"There is no opportunity for collective bargaining either," he added.
A strike of this scale - which impacts production - is not common in India's electronics industry. Previous notable ones include worker unrests at iPhone factories of suppliersWistron andFoxconn during 2021, where unpaid wages and a food poisoning incident were triggers, respectively.
CITU has plans to push for more worker rights at Apple supplier Flex and electronics firm Sanmina SANM.O where it has been in talks with the management for demands including union recognition and better wages, Kannan said.
Flex in a statement said it upholds highest global standards for labor practices and believe in a respectful and collaborative environment.
The prime minister's office, the federal IT ministry, the Tamil Nadu labor ministry, and Sanmina did not respond to Reuters queries.
DIRE SITUATION
The Samsung strike is one of biggest industrial unrests to have caused production disruptions at a foreign multinational company. The plant alone accounts for around a third of its annual $12 billion India revenue.
While workers protest, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has been on a U.S. tour since late August and held talks with companies such as Nike and Ford F.N.
In Samsung's case, the CITU privately wrote a letter in July - seen by Reuters - asking the its management for higher wages for workers who it said were forced into a "dire situation".
When the company didn't agree, CITU supported workers to start a strike this week, which is also serving as a challenge to companies the group says pay low wages to poor workers.
Samsung workers are earning 25,000 rupees ($300) on average per month, CITU said, and they are demanding a raise of 36,000 rupees ($430) over three years. One worker outside the plant said he joined Samsung a decade ago and makes only 23,000 rupees a month, which made life difficult with soaring living costs.
"Instances of strikes could be reduced if government ensures a mechanism for multinationals to respect the labour laws including freedom of association and collective bargaining," said K.R. Shyam Sundar, an economist who has written on labour reforms in India.
In a statement on Friday, Samsung said it has initiated discussions with its workers at the Chennai plant "to resolve all issues at the earliest."
Samsung workers to continue India plant strike after talks end without deal ID:nL1N3KU0J6
Indian state minister to meet Samsung officials in bid to resolve strike ID:nL4N3KU0EA
FACTBOX-Labour woes at India operations of global companies ID:nL4N3KS0NK
Foxconn chief defends hiring practices after report married women rejected in India ID:nL4N3K402D
SPECIAL REPORT-Apple supplier Foxconn rejects married women from India iPhone jobs ID:nL8N3IJ06B
Editing by Aditya Kalra and Kim Coghill
Asset collegati
Ultime news
Disclaimer: le entità di XM Group forniscono servizi di sola esecuzione e accesso al nostro servizio di trading online, che permette all'individuo di visualizzare e/o utilizzare i contenuti disponibili sul sito o attraverso di esso; non ha il proposito di modificare o espandere le proprie funzioni, né le modifica o espande. L'accesso e l'utilizzo sono sempre soggetti a: (i) Termini e condizioni; (ii) Avvertenza sui rischi e (iii) Disclaimer completo. Tali contenuti sono perciò forniti a scopo puramente informativo. Nello specifico, ti preghiamo di considerare che i contenuti del nostro servizio di trading online non rappresentano un sollecito né un'offerta ad operare sui mercati finanziari. Il trading su qualsiasi mercato finanziario comporta un notevole livello di rischio per il tuo capitale.
Tutto il materiale pubblicato sul nostro servizio di trading online è unicamente a scopo educativo e informativo, e non contiene (e non dovrebbe essere considerato come contenente) consigli e raccomandazioni di carattere finanziario, di trading o fiscale, né informazioni riguardanti i nostri prezzi di trading, offerte o solleciti riguardanti transazioni che possano coinvolgere strumenti finanziari, oppure promozioni finanziarie da te non richieste.
Tutti i contenuti di terze parti, oltre ai contenuti offerti da XM, siano essi opinioni, news, ricerca, analisi, prezzi, altre informazioni o link a siti di terzi presenti su questo sito, sono forniti "così com'è", e vanno considerati come commenti generali sui mercati; per questo motivo, non possono essere visti come consigli di investimento. Dato che tutti i contenuti sono intesi come ricerche di investimento, devi considerare e accettare che non sono stati preparati né creati seguendo i requisiti normativi pensati per promuovere l'indipendenza delle ricerche di investimento; per questo motivo, questi contenuti devono essere considerati come comunicazioni di marketing in base alle leggi e normative vigenti. Assicurati di avere letto e compreso pienamente la nostra Notifica sulla ricerca di investimento non indipendente e la nostra Informativa sul rischio riguardante le informazioni sopra citate; tali documenti sono consultabili qui.
