With the deadline for winding up operations nearing and with no ray of hope of one other firm taking up the unit, employees at Ford’s Chennai automotive plant have began a protest demanding higher severance bundle. Currently, manufacturing on the plant has come to a standstill.
Those employees who went in for his or her shift on Monday refused go to the store ground and began an in-house agitation. “We went inside and said we won’t work until they provide a solution to us. The management told us that if we don’t work, it would be marked as loss of pay,” one of many employees inside, who has been there for the final 36 hours, informed The Hindu.
Apart from this, those that got here in for the second shift are protesting exterior the plant. One of the protestors, additionally an worker mentioned, “the administration requested us to signal a declaration that we’ll not protest, we refused and we’re all sitting right here on the plant,” he added. Around six employees who spoke mentioned they had been being utilised until the corporate completed manufacturing of all its pending automobiles. “We have finished all the pending work. Work on 1,500 cars is pending, and this will get over in a week’s time. So now, the management has started treating us differently,” considered one of them lamented.
One of the important thing union members mentioned there was information about plans to make use of this plant for making electrical automobiles, so the union placed on maintain talks for a number of days. “We were hopeful that we will get jobs. But in the second week of May, we were told that there are no such plans. And now the company has indicated that business would be wound up by end of June,” he added.
Sources mentioned the Deputy Labour Commissioner from Sriperumbudur visited the plant and held talks, and extra particulars could be made obtainable tomorrow.
The staff requested the Tamil Nadu authorities to instantly look into this problem and prolong assist.
Last yr, on September 9, the U.S.-headquartered carmaker mentioned it will stop manufacturing automobiles on the market in India instantly; manufacturing of automobiles for export would wind down on the Sanand automobile meeting plant by the fourth quarter of 2021 and the Chennai engine and automobile meeting crops by the second quarter of 2022. There was no replace from Ford’s public relations workforce on the protest till the story had gone to print.
Source: www.thehindu.com
