1It began with ordinary people reaching the end of their patience. Workers at Samsung’s manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur — a facility generating a third of the company’s entire Indian revenue, roughly Rs 3,000 crore a year — had spent years absorbing humiliation and inequity in silence. In 2024, they stopped being silent. What followed was 37 days of industrial action that shook one of the world’s most powerful corporations, and exposed the gap between Tamil Nadu’s investment-friendly rhetoric and the reality of life on its factory floors.
That story is now the subject of ‘37 Days: The Rise of the Samsung Union’, a documentary produced by Kamatchi Raman and Raman Kumar. Released last month, after 11 months of research and up to 15 hours of shooting, the film has made the story of organising a union accessible to the public.
The Sriperumbudur plant began operations in 2007. Today, it employs close to three thousand workers producing air conditioners, televisions, washing machines, and refrigerators. The South Korean company operates in 78 countries on a consistent model — manufacture in nations where labour protection is weak to produce goods at a fraction of the cost they would incur at home. The documentary simply puts this data point this way: the goods produced here costs nine times less than it will in South Korea.
For the workers inside, the arithmetic was different. Twelve-hour shifts were standard. Wages bore no consistent relationship to roles — a worker doing identical work to a colleague might earn tens of thousands less, with no explanation and no avenue for redressal. Workers stood for 13 hours without being permitted to sit. Those who raised concerns were met with silence, deflection, or threat.
“When I asked about the salary disparity, they told me I did not even have the right to speak to a technician about it. They humiliated us deeply,” recalled a worker. The conclusion many reached was that with a union, they could get dignity. And without one, nothing can be obtained.
The decision to organise
Workers began searching online for honest representation. Their research pointed to CITU, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions. Two workers made the first approach quietly. Kamatchi Raman recalled asking them one question: are you ready to form a union? “They said, to protect ourselves, a union is the only way. We are ready.”
On June 16, 2024, Samsung workers held their first collective assembly with CITU. The very first resolution passed was one of international solidarity, a formal endorsement of a simultaneous Samsung workers’ strike abroad for the same rights. By the following day, the company knew. The workers decided to come in on their one weekly day off wearing red vests. When Saturday arrived, over a thousand workers appeared in red.
The union, formally named the Samsung India Workers’ Union, submitted registration documents to the Registrar of Trade Unions. The government refused. Officials suggested the workers go to court. A petition to the Madras High Court (HC) directed the Labour Department to decide within 45 days. The registration number was issued on the 27th day after the deadline. The total delay stretched over six months and created the very resentment that would fuel the strike.
Thirty seven days
When the strike began, management escalated measures to suppress immediately. They issued arbitrary transfers, suspensions, threats of relocation, and an offer of Rs 5,000 to any worker who returned within the first month. But not one striker was swayed. “Why are you giving us this now? You never gave it when we asked before. This only proves that our unity works,” one worker said.
Samsung had preemptively blocked the assembly space near the factory, but a local advocate named Mohandas offered his land to the strikers; meanwhile, police sided openly with the management, driving a vehicle into workers, arresting the union president and a CITU leader for hours, until an emergency court petition that night secured their release.
Kamatchi Raman observed that the workers understood their struggle was about more than wages. He claimed, “There was verbal abuse inside the factory. Since they could no longer endure it, they came out.”
The media war
Mainstream coverage was, in Kamatchi Raman’s assessment, predominantly pro-government. “Media houses are funded by advertisements. That is the reality. The narrative pushed was that this protest would ensure Samsung never invested in India again.” The documentary was made to address that framing, he asserted.
After 37 days, the government and Samsung agreed to negotiate. When Samsung tried to settle with a verbal assurance, workers demanded written commitments on every demand and won, despite losing six crore in wages over the strike.
But the victory was incomplete. “Even now, 27 workers remain outside,” said Kamatchi Raman. “They have been dismissed and are going through cross-examinations.”
‘37 Days: The Rise of the Samsung Union’ is available for streaming on Comrade Talkies YouTube channel.