After a long tussle of one and a half months, one of the longest strikes in a multi-national company in Gujarat, has finally been called off with the agitating workers and management of General Motors India reaching an understanding.
GM India vice-president, corporate affairs P Balendran said, "The remaining workers that were involved in a labor dispute in our Halol plant have decided to call off their actions and will resume duties as of tomorrow morning."
He added that this follows an understanding reached between management and workers that was supported by labour department officials in Vadodara.
The company expects to return to a normal business situation in the next few days. 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.
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. By mid-April the company, however, managed to scale up production to 150 cars per day. The Halol plant is making the Tavera, Cruze, Aveo U-Va and the Aveo sedan at present.
To compensate for the 200 striking workers, the company had recruited close to 100-150 temporary workers at Halol to speed up production.
The strike had received moral support from two international agencies, the US-based Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights (IGLH), formerly known as the National Labour Committee and the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF).
The Halol plant has two labour unions, the GM Employees' Union and the Gujarat Kamdar Mandal which has come up recently under the aegis of INTUC. The GM Employees' Union has not gone on strike.
