Tata Motors workers go on flash strike
23 February, Ahmedabad
Over 400 workers of Tata Motors Tuesday went on flash strike demanding re-instatement of 28 of their suspended co-workers at the companys facility in Sanand from where the new hatch back Tiago was to roll out in near future.
In all 422 employees of the 2,200 working in the plant are on strike since late Monday night, M S Patel, deputy labour commissioner, Ahmedabad, told mediapersons outside Tata Motors plant in Sanand. They want management to re-instate their colleagues.
According to Patel trouble began about two months ago when two of the workers were suspended allegedly on disciplinary grounds. While one was alleged to have abused his supervisor, the other was suspended as he had gone to some other department. The workers went on flash strike then too but we had immediately intervened and got both the workers and management to reach a compromise, Patel said.
However, when the management failed to keep its promise of reinstating the two suspended workers, their remaining colleagues began demanding immediate reversal of suspension order. The management says that the workers scratched and damaged over 50 vehicles in the plant and so they had to suspend 26 more people last night.
This saw remaining workers go on a flash strike, Patel said.Tata Motors Sanand plant had become a symbol of industrial friendly governance in Gujarat, after Ratan Tata, at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, moved the plant to manufacture his Rs 1 lakh dream car Nano from Singur in West Bengal in 2008.
Tata Motors Sanand plant does not have an organized labour union. Though all of them are salaried and permanent employees of the plant, there is no single leader. They have a panel of seven people with whom we are now trying to have a dialogue, the deputy labour commissioner said.
Tata Motors in its statement said that around 300 workmen at their Sanand plant had gone on an illegal strike on February 22, 2016 “demanding re-instatement of the workmen suspended (pending enquiry) for serious misconduct. While the Management team is continuing to make efforts to talk to the workmen on strike and convince them to restore normalcy, Plant operations are simultaneously continuing.”
The company further stated, “There have been continued agitations for further monetary increases as well as protests against disciplinary actions against those instigating the workmen, resulting in serious threat to company personnel as well as losses due to tampering. Viewed as attempts to coerce the Management, around 20 workmen have been suspended (pending enquiry) on various changes of serious misconduct.”
Beginning its operations in 2010, the Sanand plant of Tata has seen ups and downs in production of Nano. Against the installed capacity of 250,000 cars per annum, it is reported to have produced roughly 42,560 Nano cars in the two years between January 2014 to December 2015.