The labour strike at the General Motors India (GM) Halol plant that completed a month today is showing no signs of dying down. Close to 200 striking workers are yet report to work. The company, however, is making around 150 cars per day at Halol with the remaining workforce.
Nearly 900 workers at the plant had gone on an indefinite strike from second shift on Wednesday, March 16 primarily complaining against health issues as well protesting against transfer of employees from the Halol plant. Around 650-700 workers had joined back by March 25. The carmaker is estimated to have lost production of around 1500 units so far.
GM's Halol plant was making 190 cars per day in two shifts before the strike broke out. As production resumed after a few days, the company was initially making around 60-70 cars per day. It has now managed to scale up production to 150 cars per day, informed a worker at Halol. "We are making the Tavera, Cruze, Aveo U-Va and the Aveo sedan at Halol now", he added.
The company has recruited close to 100-150 temporary workers at Halol to speed up production.
Meanwhile, the Halol issue, which is being arguably called the longest labour strike in the last two decades in Gujarat, has managed to garner a fresh round of international support. "US-based Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights (IGLH), formerly known as the National Labour Committee has sent an online petition to the senior management of GM pleading them to address the workers' complaints. The online petition has already been signed by over 1500 people", informed Nihil Mehta, Gujarat president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).
The strike had earlier received support from the the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) which had extended moral support to the Gujarat Kamdar Mandal-backed workers' strike at the factory.
