As strike ends, GM gears to make LCVs

General Motors today said production of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) will start as planned in the first quarter of 2012.

The announcement comes a day after a 54-day workers' strike ended at the automaker's Halol plant in Panchmahals district, Gujarat.

“Our $300 million (Rs 1,350 crore) expansion project is expected to be completed in December 2011. This will enhance our annual production capacity from 85,000 units to 1.10 lakh units. Our first LCV is expected to roll out in the first quarter of next year,” Mr P. Balendran, Vice-President (Corporate Affairs), GM India Pvt Ltd, told Business Line .

During the 42-working-day peaceful strike, GM had lost production of nearly 2,500 units, but its expansion project continued in full swing, he added.

The strike, perhaps the longest one in two decades in an otherwise labour-and-industry friendly State, began in the second shift on March 16 and drew support from several labour unions. It ended yesterday after the employees, protesting against alleged health hazards in the factory, decided to resume work with the intervention of the State Labour Department.

GM, which had on March 25 threatened to dismiss the protesters, refrained from taking the extreme step, which apparently led to the agitation slowly fizzling out, even as mediatory talks continued at various levels. However, nearly 150 workers had been employed temporarily by the company to run at least one shift.

First shift

Mr Nihil Mehta, President, Gujarat Kamgar Mandal, affiliated to the INTUC, said the workers in the first shift had returned to work this morning. Out of the 1,600 workers at GM, only about 800 were regulars. The remaining were made to work like permanent ones without paying them according to the Factory Act. The union has taken up the case of staff regularisation as well. The Labour Commissioner is expected to take the issues to the Industrial Disputes Court soon.

Mr Mehta said due to a 20 per cent overload on workers, 269 cases of back-pain had been reported to the National Human Rights Commission, two petitions were pending with the Gujarat High Court and one with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Despite this, GM had transferred four workers who had complained of spinal cord problems.

All these issues remain unsettled and will continue to be dealt with, he said, adding that the workers returned to work only because the committee said it will look into their demands.

The US-based Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights, formerly known as the National Labour Committee, and the International Metalworkers' Federation, had also extended “moral” support to the GM workers' strike.

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