Pall of gloom settles over Akurdi

Sunil Shinde, a 40-year-old worker at Bajaj Auto's Akurdi plant has been wary of his future since the company announced a four-day week at the plant on August 24 and shifted production of Kristal scooters to Waluj, near Aurangabad. Now that the company has shut down the plant, leaving just a shop or two running, the pall of gloom is thicker.

Shinde's 19-year-old son has just enrolled in college and his 23-year-old daughter has to be married. His parents, who stay with him, are ageing and medical bills are mounting. A chunk of his Rs 11,000 salary goes in servicing loans taken from the credit society. ''We hope they don't leave us lurching,'' said Shinde.

Workers from Pune's factories had gathered at the Shramashakti Bhawan, opposite the Akurdi plant, on Saturday to show solidarity with Bajaj's workers.

Shinde's story captures the dilemma of Akurdi's 2,726 workers, many of who are above 40, have worked there for 30-35 years and may find it difficult to relocate or find a new job. ''It hurts when we hear they're shutting this factory,'' said a worker who worked in the final assembly area for two-wheelers. Bajaj officials were not available for comments on Saturday.

The Akurdi plant, which has helped Bajaj Auto become a Rs 16,656 crore giant, has seen it all. At its peak, workers say, the plant used to produce 600-650 vehicles a day in two shifts, with people doing four hours overtime in each (in 1993-94).

Seven huge sheds, each the size of a big factory, hummed with activity and housed 38 shops "" chassis, paint, press, body, machining, final assembly, forging, heat treatment, maintenance, stores and research and development.

But life at Akurdi has changed in the last 10 years, with Bajaj shifting its product lines to other plants and outsourcing many parts that were made in-house. Almost 8,000 people opted for voluntary retirement.

''What remains now is the engine assembly, machining shop (it still employs about 400-500 people), paint shop and R&D,'' said a worker who has worked in the engine assembly shop.

There was a time when the best way to make money was to buy a Bajaj scooter. Workers still remember the time when Bajaj opened bookings for the M-50 step-through in 1983-84. People stood in queues overnight at the local dealer to book it. ''When bookings opened, there was a stampede,'' recalled Shekhar Sawant, a leader of one of the three unions at Bajaj.

Over the years, the remaining shops at Akurdi have been modernised and they have adopted modern manufacturing practices such as Kaizen and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). ''Today, it's an international-level plant,''adds Sawant.

Workers at Akurdi counter charges of lower productivity and say their productivity (at 1,000 vehicles a day) was on a par with that of the other plants.

They say that unlike some other plants such as Chakan, which is an assembly line, they used to make parts such as gears and engines for other plants.

(The names of some workers have been changed to protect their identity)