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| Employees of the Hyundai Motor Indian Ltd. Trade Union marched in protest againts the company's refusal to accept their union on Feb. 28, at Wallajah road. Photo; Saumya Ancheri/Digantik |
Hyundai refusal to recognise union irks workers
By Saumya Ancheri
Last updated at 2 pm Fri, Feb.29, 2008
Chennai: “Hyundai Motors India Ltd. (HMIL) is not recognising the workers’ trade union even though we registered with the government in July 2007,” said President of the HMIL Trade Union, Edison Perreira. Perreira and more than 500 workers of the company were staging a protest in front of the state guest house at Chepauk on Thursday.
Busloads of workers kept coming in. “Eight workers have been suspended, six have been transferred, 120 got their wages cut for eight days and 1200 have received memos since we started protesting against their refusal to accept the trade union,” the union president pointed out.
“It is an unfair labour practice,” said the trade union general secretary, Y S Sinharaja who had come to attend the protest at Chepauk Stadium from Delhi. He had been transferred by Hyundai for his involvement in the protest. “We are going to send a petition to Joint Commissioner of Labour, Deputy Commissioner of Labour and to the government.”
“We had a Works Committee, but when the company took over it, we decided to form a trade union,” said technician Dilli Babu. “The company is interfering with our independence.” He said that Hyundai employed 1500 confirmed labourers, 4000 appendices and 4000 casual labourers. “The confirmed labourers get Rs 20,000 a month, while the appendices get Rs 1,000 a month, and the casual labourers get Rs. 100 a day,” he revealed, adding, “Once the trade union gets accepted, we will ask for the number of casual labourers to be decreased or get confirmation of their employment, because the same workers have been getting Rs 100 a day for the past 10 years.”
“When more than 1000 of us went to submit a petition to the Chief Minister at the inauguration of Hyundai’s Second Phase at Porur on Feb. 2, we were arrested by the police,” said technician P. Mgunaseelam. “They did not include the workers in the celebration; it was only for the government officers and Hyundai’s high officials. Hyundai must accept the trade union.”
State secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions, A Soundarya, All India Trade Union Congress leader A S Thyagaraja, All India Central Council of Trade Unions leader S Kumaraswami, Railway Trade Union secretary Janaki Raman, MRF Trade Union and State Transport Trade Union were present at the protest.
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