Mahindra workers threaten strike at

Nashik over wages

After a spate of strikes in the Gurgaon-Manesar auto cluster, labour unrest now seems to be
brewing in Maharashtra. Workers at utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra's (M&M's)
Nashik facility on Tuesday issuing a notice to the management to go on strike on or after
March 11, if their demands for higher wages were not settled by the company.
Production work, too, was temporarily disrupted in two assembly shops at M&M's Nashik
unit for about three hours on Tuesday, resulting in a loss of 90 units. The company produces
high-volume utility vehicles Xylo, Scorpio, Bolero and sedan Verito at the Nashik unit.

M&M confirmed it has received a notice from the employees' union at the facility. The
workers at the Nashik have been agitating for higher wages after the three-year wage pact
lapsed earlier in February this year.
According to industry sources, wage negotiations have been on for over six months between
the management and the workers at the company. The workers have now started showing
signs of disquiet and have demanded settlement of their charter of demands by Monday,
failing which they would go ahead with a production strike.
Workers at M&M's Nashik unit had earlier gone on a day-long tool-down strike on May 6,
2011 to demand higher wages for a third of the workforce. They had also done a fortnightlong strike in May 2009 to protest against the suspension of union leader Madhavrao
Dhatrak.
"The management is in regular dialogue with the union for the normal wage negotiation
process and will put in its best efforts to reach a mutually agreeable settlement at the earliest
possible. The appropriate government agencies are being kept informed of the same and are
also part of the discussions in this regard," said M&M.

The company also informed that work had normalised at the Nashik facility from second shift
on Tuesday. "From the second shift, production in all shops of the plant was back to normal.
There is no material effect of this temporary disruption on the production and operations front
and the management is confident that the shortfall in production of around 90 vehicles will be
soon made good", the statement added.

This is the second instance of labour unrest in the auto industry over the past two months.
Workers at two-wheeler giant Hero MotoCorp's Gurgaon unit have been agitating for higher
wages for the past two months. In January, they had temporarily resorted to slowing down
production at the unit to press ahead with their demand for increment of over Rs 15,000 in
monthly salary spread over a three-year period.
The disturbances at M&M and Hero MotoCorp have come after a series of the record
increments in the auto industry, the latest of which has happened at former partner Honda
Motorcycle and Scooter India's (HMSI) Manesar factory. In a wage pact, which was inked on
December 26, 2012, HMSI had increased monthly salary by around Rs 14,770 over a threeyear period for 1,800 permanent workers at its Manesar unit.
Soon after lifting the lock-out in August last year, Maruti Suzuki, too, had increased wages by
a record 50 per cent or Rs 14,800, for around 2,800 workers at Gurgaon and around 700
workers at Manesar. At Hyundai also, around 2,000 permanent workers were given an
average salary increase (including variable pay) of Rs 14,283 over a three-year period in
October 2012. That's a 45 per cent hike over the settlement made in 2009, where the average
salary increase was Rs 9,820.

Workers of Mahindra & Mahindra call off

strike
NASHIK: The workers of the Nashik plant of the automotive major Mahindra & Mahindra
(M&M), on Thursday, called off their 'tool down' strike after the company management
agreed to reinstate the two suspended office bearers of the M&M employees' union and sign
the new wage agreement by April 15.

Meanwhile, the production at the Nashik plant of M&M, which had been stopped from the
second shift on Tuesday evening, commenced in the evening on Thursday.

The company workers went on tool down strike on Tuesday evening after the suspension of
union's general secretary Pravin Shinde and vice-president Amol Sonawane, who were on
hunger strike from Monday to press for their demands of a revised wage agreement.
An amicable settlement was reached between the company management and the union at a
meeting called by the deputy labour csommissioner (DLC) R S Jadhav. The settlement was
signed by general manager Anil Godbole, manufacturing head (Scorpio) N K Deshmukh and
manager Mohan Kumar, on behalf of the management, while union president Shirish
Bhavsar, vice-president Amol Sonawane and general secretary Pravin Shinde signed the
settlement on behalf of the workers.
Speaking to TOI, deputy labour commissioner R S Jadhav said, "As per the settlement, the
company workers have called off the tool down and hunger strike and the management has
also agreed to reinstate the two suspended office bearers of the union. The union will also
withdraw its notice to call strike from March 11 that it had announced earlier. The company
management will hold talks with the union office bearers and sign the new wage agreement
before April 15. The new agreement will be enforced from February 6."

Jadhav further said, "It has been decided to set up a special committee to decide the pay
scales of workers under grade N-1. This committee will have three representatives each from
the company management and the workers union."
The Nashik plant of M&M has around 2,922 permanent workers. Of which, around 1,749
workers are under grade O-2 with salary range between Rs 24,000 and Rs 25,000, while
1,044 workers are under grade N-1 with salary of around Rs 12,000. The rest of the 129
workers are from O-1, O-3 and S-1 categories. The demand of the union is to include these
1,044 workers under grade O-2.

The previous wage agreement period expired on February 5 and the company management
had not renewed it even after having given a proposal six months back by the union. Around
eight rounds of talks were held between the union and the management, but a consensus was
not reached.
According to sources, M&M's Nashik facility, which is located at Satpur MIDC area,
manufactures around 550 vehicles daily, including Xylo, Scorpio, Quanto, Verito and Bolero.
"The total production of 1,000 vehicles was affected due to the tool down strike in last three
days. The production losses are estimated at around 80 crore," sources said.

Labor Strike at Mahindra Plant

MUMBAI-- Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India's largest maker of sport utility
vehicles, said Wednesday it has lost production of 500 vehicles due to a strike at
one of its plants in the western state of Maharashtra.
The strike started Tuesday at its Nashik plant and is still on, the company said in
a statement. It didn't provide any reasons for the strike.
According to a report in the Business Standard newspaper, employees at the
plant stopped work after the company suspended a union leader who was on
strike demanding renewal of a wage agreement.
The Nashik plant has previously been hit by labor problems. In 2009, workers
there struck work for 15 days over pay.
Mahindra manufactures its top-selling models Scorpio, Bolero and Xylo SUVs
as well as the Verito sedan at the factory. It also has plants in several other
places.
The company is one of India's few auto makers which are posting sales growth
despite a weak overall market. In February it sold 47,824 vehicles, up 14% on
year, helped in part by demand for its new models.

Mahindra said its production loss won't affect sales as it has stock for three
weeks.

14-day strike by workers at Mahindras

Igatpuri plant ends
A 14 day strike by workers at Mahindras Igatpuri plant to protest the suspension of a two
employees ended on April 22. The suspension of the workers was revoked after they tendered
a written and unconditional apology. The President of Bhartiya Kamgar Sena, affiliated to
Shiv Sena, Shri Suryakant Mahadik has given an assurance that workers would not indulge in
any breach of discipline in the future.
The management has also received a personal assurance from the Shiv Sena President,
Uddhav Thackeray, that such instances will not be repeated in future by the workers within
the plant. The Indian SUV majors Igatpuri Plant works on a three shift basis and produces
mills for the XUV500, Bolero, Xylo and well as commercial vehicles like the Genio and the
Maxximo.

NOKIA
Workers Strike at Nokia's India Factory
The factory is a key hub for the manufacture of mobile handsets and employs 8,000 workers.
Nokia officials declined Workers at Nokia's Chennai factory in south India went on strike on
Tuesday, demanding higher wages.
to comment on the impact the strike would have on production of phones.

The strike follows negotiations on Monday between Nokia and the local union, Nokia India
Employees Progressive Union (NIEPU), for a long-term wage settlement, which Nokia said
was close to being finalized.
nokia said in a statement that the wages being offered are among the highest in the region in
similar industries.
nokia appeared to have resolved in the current negotiations another contentious issue when it
offered to revoke the suspension of 60 workers. the company suspended 60 chennai factory
employees in january on charges of misconduct.
about 1,200 workers then went on strike in protest of the suspensions. nokia said it would use
other factories it has globally to avoid disrupting production.
india's manufacturing sector has strong trade unions unlike the software services and business
process outsourcing industries.
the proposed settlement on monday between nokia and the niepu was rejected by a faction
within niepu opposed to the new leaders of the union, according to sources who declined to
be named.
niepu is currently under the control of the labour progressive front (lpf), a union that is
affiliated to the ruling dmk (dravida munnetra kazhagam) party in tamil nadu state of which
chennai is the capital. niepu and lpf were not immediately available for comment.
citu (centre of indian trade unions), a large leftist trade union, supports the strike at nokia,
said a. soundararajan, the union's general secretary in tamil nadu, on wednesday.
nokia had a 54.1 percent market share in india of units sold in 2009, according to research
firm idc india.

Nokia Chennai plant employees announce oneday hunger

Employees of Finnish handset maker Nokia's plant at Sriperumbudur near Chennai have
decided to go on one-day hunger strike here next week, seeking job security to them in the
wake of Nokia-Microsoft deal.
Besides staging a hunger strike on March 31 in Chennai, the Nokia India Employees Union
have decided to further step up their protest post the Lok Sabha elections, its Honorary
President, A Soundararajan said on Thursday.
"The Central and the State Governments should come forward and ensure that the due to the
transfer of assets of Nokia to Microsoft (as per the $7.2 billion deal), there should not be any
job losses. We have decided to stage a one-day hunger fast on March 31 in this regard,"
Soundararajan told reporters in Chennai.
After the elections we will do whatever possible to intensify our protest. What we request the
Tamil Nadu Government is, if suppose the Nokia management seeks State government nod
for closing the plant, the State government should not allow that to happen," he said.
As part of this move, he said the Union representatives have planned to meet the senior
government officials from the Labour and Industries department soon.
We will also meet Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's support also," he said.
Observing that the production at the plant which was operating at three shifts producing 13
million handsets per month, he said, since January the three shift operation has been cut to
two shifts and production has come down to four million handsets.
"Even in two shift operations, about 300 people are sitting idle. We fear the management
citing the decline in production and decrease in businesses, there may be some lay off. We do
not want that to happen," he said.
We cannot allow retrenchment or closure of the plant. We will not permit that to happen," he
said.
Another Nokia India Employees Union official said the company has entirely moved the
manufacturing of its highly popular "Asha" range of mobile phones to other manufacturing
plants and only produces low-end mobile handsets from the Chennai plant.
Asked whether the Union was comfortable with being contract labourers post the deal to
Microsoft, Soundararajan replied in the negative, saying: "Now we are permanent employees

(in Nokia). When we become contract labourers, they (Microsoft management) may send
some of us. We want to secure our job."
The Union has also planned to get the support of various political parties and other employee
Unions as part of the one-day hunger fast, he said.

MAHINDRA AND MAHINDRA

NASHIK PLANT (IGATPURI)
The plant employs around 4,000 workers and produces most of the M&M models
such as the Xylo, Bolero, Quanto and Scorpio besid
M&M has already incurred loss of production of around 500 vehicles so far. In terms
of revenue loss, it is estimated to be around Rs 25 crore.

ISSUE
The strike is a result of a fallout of the suspension of two workmen on disciplinary
grounds.
The hunger strike by the two senior union leaders, who were demanding immediate
signing of the wage accord by the company.
One of the union leader was suspended.
The union is demanded inflation-linked wage revision, besides restricting the wage
agreement period to three years against the present three-and-a-half years.

WHAT MANAGEMENT WANTED?

The company wants the two leaders to end their hunger strike and then come for
negotiations while the union leaders are firm on their stand that it should first sign the
wage hike agreement, which it has been negotiating with the union for the past almost
five months.

NEGOTIATION
The management wanted to increase production 25 per cent before considering the
wage hike demand.

Also, against the unions proposal of a Rs 10,000 hike, the managements offer is only
Rs 6,400, which is even lower than the one proposed by the DLC. Labour department
proposed increment of Rs 8,662.

NOKIA SIEMENS
In August 2009, the workers at Nokia went on strike.
According to a report, the strike started suddenly on 13th August 2009,after
announcement of the new pay proposal with a salary hike of only Rs 200 per month.

STRIKE
The workers argued that this was equivalent to no hike in salary despite repeated
requests.
The workers union had initially demanded a hike in salary in 2008, which was not
met.
In 2009, citing problems caused by the recession, demands for wage hikes were also
denied. The workers went on strike.
The strike effectively continued for only two days, but the production of 300,000
handsets was affected.
There was a very quick response from the Labour Department pressuring the workers
to stop the strike and give time to settle the dispute.
On 14th August, management agreed to talk to the workers regarding their demands
and also offered a salary hike of Rs 1400 per month.
It is also interesting to note that trade union wing of ruling DMK party the Labour
Progressive Federation (LPF) had formed a trade union in- Nokia Workers
Progressive Union, affiliated to LPF.
Through those negotiations, a wage pact was finally signed between management and
the LPF giving the workers a salary hike of Rs 1500 per month.

AGAIN STRIKE IN 2010

The strike lasted for three days and ended after assurance from the company that the
suspended workers would be taken back.

JULY 2010

The management was in the process of finalizing a long term wage settlement with
the union, but a fraction of the workers were opposed to the proposed settlement. The
demand was also to reinstate the maintained only 60 stayed away from the work
The contract included 700 workers in it.suspended workers.

JUNE 2013
The employees backed by the CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) went on strike
on June 7 demanding union recognition, reinstatement of some suspended workers
and wage hike.
While the CITU claimed that about 120 employees were on strike, the company