LGB Rolon Transfers Workers for Unionising

CHENNAI: The automotive industry in Tamil Nadu is making news for all the wrong reasons. LGB Rolon, an automotive manufacturing company situated in Coimbatore, is the new entry in the long list of managements who are dead against unionisation, thereby infringing upon the workers’ right to freedom of association.

The management have given transfer orders to 11 workers, most of whom are union office- bearers, to the company’s North India units. These were the latest in the punitive measures taken by the management against protesting workers.

About 100 permanent workers in LGB Rolon went on a strike that lasted for more than six months. The strike began after the management transferred the office-bearers of the newly formed union, which is affiliated to All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU). The main demands of the protesters were to revoke the transfer orders and to recognise the union and collective wage bargaining.

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On August 21, the workers decided to go back to the factory following an intervention from the labor commission. The assistant labour commissioner of Coimbatore asked them to return to the job and to deal the transfer orders in court. The management also promised the workers that they would hold talks with the union.

But the workers faced very inhumane treatment from the management once they returned to work. They were forced to register their attendance and yet were not allowed to work on the factory floor, said union sources. Curiously, they were still paid wages.

In mid-November, the management called some workers to the company and made them sit in a separate enclosure outside the main building. They were not allowed to access the canteen or factory floors. This is a usual tactics followed by many managements to help keeping the unionised workers isolated from others, said spources.

On December 5, as many as 39 workers were transferred to a godown in Vedampatty, 10 km away from the company. These people don’t have any work there, yet have to go and register their attendance regularly. About 19 of them were demoted to ‘operators’. Meanwhile the management had confirmed two women employees, allegedly to strengthen the non-unionised permanent employee strength, union sources said.

Also Read: Over 300 Pricol Workers in TN Handed Transfer Orders After 100-day Strike Ends

Following an agitation in May this year, the company actually increased the wage by Rs 3,900 through individual agreements. But they cut the increment by Rs 1,000 as well, said Dinesh, an office bearer to Thozhilalar Koodam, a TN labour website.

“The company and the state government did not respond to the workers’ demands so far,” said Natarajan, the National secretary of AICCTU. “We are planning to spread the struggle in other units across the country, especially to the units where these workers are being transferred. To start with, we will organise protests in the seven units in Coimbatore,” he added.