M&M, India’s largest utility vehicle maker, has so far lost about 4,500 units in production due to the unprecedented ‘tool down’ strike at its manufacturing facility in Nashik. The strike has entered its 9th day, with the workers deciding to approach the Bombay High Court to appeal against the industrial court’s (Nashik) verdict asking them to resume duty within 48 hours. Swaraj Baggonkar spoke to Rajesh Jejurikar, Chief of Operations, M&M, for an update.
How did all start?
On May 4, the Union president, who is now suspended, was issued a chargesheet for misbehaviour with an employee. He was responsible for convergence of a large group of workers, which was opposed by the management. This compelled us to suspend him and this subsequently led to a tool down strike, involving 3,500 workers.
The 48 hour deadline set by the industrial court comes to end today, but workers are in no mood to relent. Your comment?
We hope the workers do not resort to contempt of court by continuing with their strike. We are in dialogue with them, asking them to resume work as early as possible. This is not just about the strike by about 3,500 workers, which has impacted production at the facility but it also involves a number of ancillary units, which are dependent on the facility for business.
What will be M&M’s next move?
We are trying to communicate to them by using the medium of local newspapers of Nashik; trying to explaining to them how the strike has affected all of us and also asking the workers to return to duty.
M&M announced earlier in the day that it has signed a salary agreement with the workers at its (nearby) Igatpuri plant. Why isn't it doing the same at Nashik?
We had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the earlier union. It is the responsibility of the current office bearer to decide on it. This MoU was signed in February last year, when the economic condition was even worse than it is today.
It has been nine days since production at the plant was paralysed. What is the production loss?
We have indeed lost production due to the tool down strike but as stated earlier, we are depending on our inventory to meet delivery schedules. We did hope the strike would end soon, but since it has taken this long, we have to consider options. We are in dialogue with the workmen and hopefully they will return to work in good time. The court order is a positive move towards the crisis and we hope they will not resist the order.
Has there been any demand loss for Scorpio and Xylo?
It is too early to say but according to my knowledge, there hasn't been any impact on the demand side. Obviously, the shortage has led to more clamouring for our vehicles.
Besides trying to induce the workers to resume, what are the alternative plans?
Every organisation will have such a plan and so do we. We will decide at what stage we will do it. At a very broad level, yes, we are considering moving the production out of Nashik (to other plants like Zaheerabad or Kandivali).