Bosch workers on hunger strike from today

Workers at Bosch’s Bangalore plant have gone on a hunger strike starting 10 am on Sunday, fighting the company’s decision to outsource manufacturing of certain products made at the Adugodi facility.

“For the first few days, we have decided that five workers will fast each day, and if the management shows no inclination to resolve the issue, we will start a mass hunger strike with all the 3000 members participating,” Mr Raghavendra, executive committee member of the Mico Employees Association (MEA), told Business Line.

The workers have been on a ‘Tool Down’ strike for the last four days, and the strike has intensified after the management has not cooperated with the State Labour Department and the MEA to resolve the issue. The Labour Commissioner of Karnataka had, on Friday, called for a meeting with the Bosch management and the MEA, but the company management hadn’t attended the meeting. The meeting has been rescheduled for 4th October, Mr Raghavendra said.”

“Meanwhile, we (the MEA) plan to take up the issue with the Law Minister and the Labour Minister of Karnataka and the Labour Secretary,” Mr Raghavendra said. He added that apart from discussing the “illegal” shut down of the plant, they propose to take up the issue of ‘illegally’ employing women, administrative staff and trainees of the company at the shop floor at the Adugodi unit.

Apart from the fact that production of number of pumps at the pump-housing department has come down, “we have heard that there have been complaints regarding quality of the pumps manufactured by them,” Mr Raghavendra said.

"This information is false and malicious," an industry source told Business Line. The workers have no direct contact with the customers and there is no way a customer would have told them that they aren't happy with the product, the person said.

Mr Sanjay Chakravarty, General Manager (Corporate Communications), Bosch Group India however told Business Line, “We are not in a position to comment on the nitty-gritty. The engineers are working under expert supervision and we will not be able to comment on this now.” Also, the company has a meeting with the Labour Commissioner of Karnataka on 3rd October, and we will not be able to comment on anything to the media till then, he said. He indicated that the company would not like to give comments in the media as it could delay and affect the conciliation process.

As regards the ‘illegal’ shutdown of the plant, Mr Chakravarty said that the plant had indeed not been shut down and there was only “partial suspension of a couple of processes” at the plant and that the plant was “functioning properly but the production had come down.’ He also declined to comment on the quantum of loss in production due to the strike.

The listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange on 29th September 2011 stating that the company has decided to shut down the plant was not fully correct, Mr Chakravarty said. "The BSE misquoted what the company had said and had written their own things,” he told Business Line.

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