The hunger strike by workers at Bosch's plant at Adugodi continues as it enters the eighth day and the fifth day of the relay hunger strike.
The workers, have been on a ‘tool down strike' since September 29, and intensified into a relay hunger strike on October 2.
“We haven't taken off for Dusshera and we continue the strike. We will decide in a couple of days how we will go about intensifying the strike against the management,” Mr Raghavendra, executive committee member of the MICO Employees' Association (MEA), told
Losses
MEA's strike has resulted in loss of approximately Rs 60 lakh to State exchequer and over Rs 4 crore to the Central exchequer in the last seven days, according to a press statement from Bosch.
The workers have been fighting the company's proposal to outsource manufacturing carried out in 19 departments of the plant, which they claim is against the contract the two parties signed in October 2010 stating that no processes will be outsourced till December 2012.
Bosch's stance
A press statement from Bosch sent late on Tuesday (Oct 4) however said the strike by MEA is “a gross violation of the terms of agreement signed between the company and the union in the last wage settlement in October 2010, which protects the continuity of all rights, obligations and privileges of either party signed in previous agreements.”
“The decision of ancillarisation and outsourcing of non-core manufacturing processes is imperative for modernisation in order to stay globally competitive,” Bosch said in a press statement.
The company also clarified in the press statement that “workmen are given an increment and one promotion and this move has in no way resulted in job loss.”
The press statement also said that “the plant is not shut down and some minimum production is being managed by officers as a stop-gap arrangement including all essential services which are intact and unaffected.” It added that dispatches to customers across the country are, however, made through the available stocks.
The company had earlier announced on the Bombay Stock Exchange that it has “decided to shut down plant operations for workmen with effect from September 29, 2011.”