Police in Chennai, India, have detained 104 striking workers at a local Samsung Electronics factory for planning a protest without proper permission.
Senior district police officer K. Shanmugam said permission for the protests was needed as schools and hospitals were likely to be “completely paralyzed” and protesters would “disturb public peace”.
“We are detaining them at the wedding venue as we cannot have them all at the station,” he said.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a leading trade union, said it would hold protests on Wednesday despite the arrests. A dozen other trade union groups said they supported the protests.
“This is an outdated step by the state government,” CITU regional deputy general secretary S Kannan said about the detention of 104 people.
Most of the detainees release Video from Chennai taken late on Monday showed the detained workers, most of them still wearing their Samsung uniforms, being transported by bus to the wedding venue where they were being held.
The Samsung factory in Chennai mainly manufactures home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines and televisions. The factory employs around 1,800 people. Contribute About a third of Samsung's $12 billion in annual revenue comes from India.
Around 1,000 workers at the factory went on strike last week and set up large tents outside the factory. They are demanding higher wages, longer working hours and company recognition for their CITU-backed union.
“For 16 years these workers did not have a registered union, but management's attitude, prudence, abusive practices and workload prompted the workers to form a union.” said A strike notice posted by workers.
The average wage at a Samsung factory is the current The average wage is about 25,000 rupees ($300) a month, and workers want it to increase to 36,000 rupees ($430) over the next three years.
The striking workers also complained that Samsung factories are operating at just 25 percent of their full capacity because they rely heavily on cheap labor from temporary and apprentice workers.
South Korea-based Samsung plans to cut costs by cutting its overseas workforce by up to 30 percent. The company is also reportedly cautious about recognizing a nationally supported labor union like CITU.
The CITU currently represents mostly autoworkers but wants to expand by organizing more technology workers. Until now, strikes like the one at the Samsung plant have been rare in the electronics industry.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is concerned that the escalating labor disputes could undermine its “Make in India” initiative, which aims to encourage more foreign manufacturers to relocate operations from China to India.
After the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, some international companies became nervous about their reliance on China. Diversify We will strengthen our supply chain by relocating some of our production facilities to other countries with similar labor and regulatory advantages, such as India and Vietnam.
China has grown Enraged China has opposed such “decoupling” strategies and has begun to pressure foreign companies, openly hinting that they might lose some of the benefits Beijing has given them if they move too much production elsewhere. Multinational companies have stopped talking about decoupling, and a compromise of sorts was reached this year. Introduced Instead, it adopted the “China Plus One” concept.
China Plus One is actually a watered-down form of decoupling that seems less threatening to the Chinese Communist regime: Instead of relocating operations out of China entirely, the idea is for foreign companies to open a few extra back-up facilities here and there.
The Modi government is closely watching events in Chennai as India is determined to become a “plus one” option in diversifying its supply chains in the coming years.
