Worker agitation at Hyundai and M&M interrupts production.

[avishar]

Came across this piece of news in todays economic times

source:Staff-management differences widen across sectors- Jobs-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

Hyundai insists the plant is running fine,but union agitation is rearing its head again.M&M has already lost a complete day of production on may 5.I guess the cost cutting by employees on account of recession has displeased a section of the workers.

[ram_hyundai]

Oh thats bad news.Hyundai never had such issues at their plant.one incident i had heard was once when their seat suppliers plant got burned down and that had interupted the supply of cars to a great extend.Now whats this going to do to the domestic supply.M&M was also never effected like this before,a whole day production loss means a lot and this is going to have a very long term impact on the volumes.In this industry its always cumulative loss and once delivery of a car is interupted the loss calculation even runs down to the service lost at the A.S.S. too.
ram

[shortbread]

The problems at Hyundai can have wider implications. One of the biggest pluses of Hyundai's operations in India is that they have used it as an Export base for all their small cars. While most manufacturers only see the Indian market as a bring in, assemble and sell operations, Hyundai was among the first car makers to see potential in India.
The likes of the Santro, i10 & i20 are solely made in India and exported worldwide. Even Maruti is still playing catch up to Hyundai in this respect, its a shame the country's largest car maker not contributing to the country's export potential (they did ship a few odd Zens) till recently. Hyundai's success has encouraged many others to follow suit now.
But looks like Hyundai is planning to ship production elsewhere. Heres a link to the report.

FT.com / Companies / Automobiles - Hyundai to shift part of Indian production

[mjothi]

Definitely bad news. I am sure Hyundai has capacity and potential to just shift these production unit to different parts of India or world. And I remember once the Company head even mentioned this during similar agitation before.

Just wondering what will happen when the red flag is accepted within Hyundai.

OT: I still remember those days where Dunlop, Enfield companies had faced this. I have seen some of the people shifting their sons/daughters to corporation school from convents when they lost their jobs when company closed.

[raul]

This is probably the reason there have been huge delays in the i20 and this is really affecting the launch and success of this car. Hyundai have been making noises about moving part or all of the i20 production to another country and that's probably a scare tactic with the union, but then they might and that will be everyone's loss here.

Hopefully all parties will see sense given the launch is such a crucial time for the future success of the model.

[sgiitk]

The only silver lining I can see is that maybe the workers (or their leaders) feel that the recession is coming to an end!

[hemanthisgreat]

Going by news paper reports of today morning in TOI, the issue has been resolved and the strike is over.

The strike was about 18 days long. Ironically the strike ended the day this thread was created.

Hyundai Motor workers end strike - India Business - Business - The Times of India

[ram_hyundai]

Oh thats great news,The markets are picking up and the recession is very slowly pulling out.So thats a positive sign and this one also can be yet another positive sign for the industry.
ram

[ronnyquest]

Koreans have lost their "Heads". They think if they threaten us "The Indians" then we will respond to them immediately. I think the Koreans should be reminded that the Korean Cars have succeeded only in INDIAN market compared to others. Hyundai doesn't have the market presence as it has in India compared to the Global Market. Hyundai needs us, We don't need Hyundai. If the factory employees have issues, there must be an genuine issue. Hyundai never had union in India for quiet some time. But internal resources say the Korean Management of Hyundai have become arrogant and are misbehaving with their employees. Employees in the fear of loosing job and the salary are forced not to react and express their dissatisfaction to the world. Let good sense prevail in their mindset and not take us for granted.

[Takumi-san]

Without knowing the facts, I think its extremely irresponsible of you to make these claims. Even those much abhorred sweat shops in countries like China actually are preferred employers for the employees since they provide better compensation than anyone else.

This being India, how could you not rule out competing auto makers to stir up trouble? Its very much possible.

Finally having had a first hand look at our leather factory where we took very good care of workers being forced to close over union troubles - I know for a fact that sometimes these union bosses are just out to prove a point or for their own benefits. Both the factory owners and the poor workers are left to count their losses while the union leaders / netas move on to more fertile hunting grounds.

Korean cars are becoming well respected within their own sphere the world over. Had it not been for competition from the likes of the Santro and Matiz ; Maruti would still not hesitate in peddling out Carb based engines - as they used to long after MPFI became the norm. We need the competition and we need these factories to stay in India if we want this nation to grow.

Encourage this and the next thing you know will be that Tata shifts to China to make the Nano.

I am not just justifying the car bosses , but I wont have people peddle the fact that the poor are always at the receiving end, no matter what. Its just not true. They cant have all the benefits they want and still expect the company to offer us products at a low cost and make profits for shareholders. We already see GM and Ford down that path. India is a low cost manufacturing hub and that does mean keeping costs low - not at the expense of workers, but at the expense of all factors. Its our competitive advantage and lets not loose it.

Originally Posted by ronnyquest

Koreans have lost their "Heads". They think if they threaten us "The Indians" then we will respond to them immediately. I think the Koreans should be reminded that the Korean Cars have succeeded only in INDIAN market compared to others. Hyundai doesn't have the market presence as it has in India compared to the Global Market. Hyundai needs us, We don't need Hyundai. If the factory employees have issues, there must be an genuine issue. Hyundai never had union in India for quiet some time. But internal resources say the Korean Management of Hyundai have become arrogant and are misbehaving with their employees. Employees in the fear of loosing job and the salary are forced not to react and express their dissatisfaction to the world. Let good sense prevail in their mindset and not take us for granted.

[ronnyquest]

Originally Posted by Takumi-san

Without knowing the facts, I think its extremely irresponsible of you to make these claims. Even those much abhorred sweat shops in countries like China actually are preferred employers for the employees since they provide better compensation than anyone else.

This being India, how could you not rule out competing auto makers to stir up trouble? Its very much possible.

Finally having had a first hand look at our leather factory where we took very good care of workers being forced to close over union troubles - I know for a fact that sometimes these union bosses are just out to prove a point or for their own benefits. Both the factory owners and the poor workers are left to count their losses while the union leaders / netas move on to more fertile hunting grounds.

Korean cars are becoming well respected within their own sphere the world over. Had it not been for competition from the likes of the Santro and Matiz ; Maruti would still not hesitate in peddling out Carb based engines - as they used to long after MPFI became the norm. We need the competition and we need these factories to stay in India if we want this nation to grow.

Encourage this and the next thing you know will be that Tata shifts to China to make the Nano.

I am not just justifying the car bosses , but I wont have people peddle the fact that the poor are always at the receiving end, no matter what. Its just not true. They cant have all the benefits they want and still expect the company to offer us products at a low cost and make profits for shareholders. We already see GM and Ford down that path. India is a low cost manufacturing hub and that does mean keeping costs low - not at the expense of workers, but at the expense of all factors. Its our competitive advantage and lets not loose it.

My dear friend i respect your thoughts.... but the fact is i have been indirectly associated with this company and i have many of my colleagues who are heading this company. They are in the top managment level. The fact is i am not against koreans but i am against their practices and the arrogance they have on us. There have been some actions taken by korean managment which have indirectly insulted us in our culture perspective. The emmployees in the fear of loosing their jobs are not protesting against it.They are tolerating it, but my thing they should not take our tolerance as an adavantage to proceed with their actions.

[Takumi-san]

Certainly. If you do have insider knowledge then it is a matter of shame for the Koreans to even think that they are technologically superior and will remain so. The truth of the matter is that the future of Asia and then the world is in the hands of China and India. Companies would do well to adjust themselves and try to succeed here. The current recession has only strengthened this case.

If its indeed true, then this is simple racism. I do hope that the management is taught a lesson by the judiciary. However I dont want the matter to end up by a senior manager being lynched by a mob and strikes which look absolutely bad on the industry and country as a whole.

Lets hope it comes to a suitable solution.

[anjan_c2007]

This thread was necessary I thought to make our fellow members and surfers aware of strikes and lockouts going on currently, in one or many India based automobile manufacturing or assembling plants. The information can be updated from time to time as and when a strike or a lockout reported here ceases and /or a new one comes into effect.
Strikes are not so common these days as used to happen about two decades or so back due to some obvious reasons.
To begin with there's a strike on at the Mahindra and Mahindra plant in Nashik since about two weeks.So no Xylos and Scorpios are rolling out from there. Our sympathies with those who have booked these and are waiting endlessly to own one.
There's another strike at the Hyundai Motors India Ltd plant near Chennai. The management had openly warned the strikers, that a part of the i 20 production will be shifted to Europe to keep up with the demands and export committments. The i20 waiting list is quite long and again our sympathies here with prospective buyers.

[sriku]

Some good news, apparently, the management and the union have agreed, and the Union called off the strike at Mahindra's Nashik plant, and reports suggest that production has resumed. A direct consequence of the strike is the discounts available on the Bolero variants SLE and SLX. I was quoted a 40K discount on the Bolero SLX a month back, but now am informed that the company discount has been temporarily rescinded.

Sources:
ET

Reuters

[sriku]

I've heard from Global Gallarie, Thane, the sales staff there is very involved and notified me when the strike ended, and late yesterday via sms around 9:30 pm that the Mahindra company discount on the bolero (40K) has been resumed. The pricing on the SLX variant OTR with Octroi Thane is: INR 7,07,000. After discounts of 45,200, it reduces to around 6,62,000. Additionally there is a stamp duty reduction that has recently happened, so should be able to save about 2k on that.