Rarely in recent years has a foreign multinational in India had to deal with such a large-scale social movement. Around a thousand workers at a Samsung factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu, have been on strike since 9 September. They are demanding that their newly formed union, the Samsung India Labour Welfare Union (Silwu), be officially recognised by the company. They are also demanding an increase in wages and better working hours.
The South Korean giant’s employees are camping out under a large tent in front of the factory that makes refrigerators, washing machines and televisions. Their mobilisation has caused production disruptions at this plant that alone generates a third of Samsung’s annual turnover of more than 10 billion euros in India. Here, workers earn an average of 25,000 rupees a month, or about 270 euros.
In India, many fear that the protests will discourage investors, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to make his country a credible alternative to China, the new factory of the world. India has set itself the goal of tripling electronics production by 2030, to reach 500 billion dollars (450 billion euros). The industrial giants have been attracted in recent years by favourable policies and cheap labour.
“Businesses are counting on the government to improve the ease of doing business, but India must ensure that workers’ rights are respected and freedom of association should not be an issue, especially since in the case of Samsung, the employees’ requests are perfectly valid. legitimate”says Anand Parappadi Krishnan, a researcher at the Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies at Shiv Nadar University on the outskirts of New Delhi.
Supported by the CITU union
The Samsung strikers are supported by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a communist union founded in 1970, which wants to strengthen its presence in the booming electronics sector. “The most important thing for us is the official recognition of their union and the possibility of collective bargaining in the future. Samsung has been established in India since 2007 and in seventeen years no union has been established.”laments KC Gopi Kumar of the CITU regional committee in Tamil Nadu.
Tripartite negotiations between employees, Samsung and Tamil Nadu state representatives have so far failed. Samsung is said to be reluctant to recognise a union supported by a national labour organisation such as the CITU. “Without our support, employees would be more vulnerable to company pressure and their bargaining power would be weakened”Gopi Kumar complains, recalling that freedom of association is guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.
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