Honda suspends Unicorn production

Motorcycle production has been suspended at the Manesar plant of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), which is in the midst of a major labour unrest.

"We had to stop production of motorcycles as almost all the existing manpower and resources are being diverted for scooter production," a senior company official said today.

The company sells only one motorcycle, the 150-cc Unicorn, in India. "The production of Unicorn was stopped on June 27 when production levels were severly hampered due to the on-going strike," V Sridhar, general manager (manufacturing) of HMSI, said.

HMSI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honda Motor, has scooters as its mainstay in India, and is credited with reviving the sagging sales of the scooter market.

Against the peak production level of 2,000 scooters per day, Sridhar claimed that it has limped back to around 750 units per day.

The company employs about 3,500 employees, which includes about 2,500 line associates - almost all of whom are currently up in arms against the management.

Around 175 line associates have returned to work while the rest are still on strike, and refusing to resume duty unless their demands, including a hike in salary and reinstatement of suspended employees, are met by the management.