Yamaha Workers Continue Strike in Kanchipuram Plant Against Termination of 2 Workers

Workers from India Yamaha Motor Private Limited (IYM), at its Kanchipuram plant in Tamil Nadu, continued their indefinite strike on the fourth day following the illegal termination of two workers. The immediate demand of the protesting workers is the reinstatement of the workers who have been terminated.

Giving a voice to the workers, a union has been formed recently to highlight the issues of the workers in the Kanchipuram plant. The company management has been reportedly unhappy with this development. The protesting workers have alleged that it is the trigger behind the termination of the two workers – Rajamanikandan and Prakash. Rajamanikandan serves as the treasurer of the union that is affiliated to Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), and Prakash serves as one of the secretaries of the union. 

On the evening of September 20, as per the Industrial Dispute Act, a meeting was conducted in the presence of the officials from the Tamil Nadu Labour Welfare Board to discuss the welfare policies of the workers from the state. The Yamaha management, however, had not turned up for the meeting. Following the meeting, Rajamanikandan and Prakash were terminated. The management, so far, has not served any letter furnishing the details about the termination.

“All of a sudden, the two workers have been terminated. When they came for work on September 23 morning, they were not able to access the attendance system, and got to know that they were terminated. They have not got any termination letter,” Muthukumar from CITU told Newsclick.

“As two of us were terminated from work, others have gathered and started protesting. At that time, almost 600 workers were inside, and they started protesting inside the factory. Also, nearly 100 out who have come for the morning shift duty, have started protesting outside,” Muthukumar added.

The company management has not met with the workers yet. Apart from that, the company has denied sanitation facilities to the protesting workers.

“The company has even sent goons to the house of Prakash, and those goons have threatened Prakash’s mother and brother. Families of other protesting workers are also being threatened. Simply, the management is trying to disrupt the struggle of workers in all possible ways,” said Kannan Soundararajan of CITU.

The workers’ union reportedly lodged a complaint against the management staff Mukesh Kumar and Robert Kennedy.

“Of course, our protest is also for the rights of the workers to be unionised, while management has been trying to disrupt the union that stands for the rights of workers strengthening the demand for better labour,” added Kannan.