CHENNAI: It is not difficult to find the Samsung India workers’ protest site in Echoor. The trail of light blue uniform-shirts on either side of the main road leads you to the temporary shed set up on a vacant piece of land, around a kilometre away from Samsung India’s manufacturing unit, which primarily makes televisions, refrigerators and air conditioners. Of the 1,800 people employed at the unit, 1,300 are participating in the strike.
For over a week now, many of these workers begin arriving at the shed in the mornings. They always take a few minutes to discuss developments from inside the plant they’ve heard about through the grapevine.
“I heard that they are giving away TVs and refrigerators as gifts to those who agree to let go of their demand for a union. If only they had this concern for us sooner,” noted one worker.
While the Samsung workers, who have been protesting since September 9, have a series of demands that include reduced working hours and revised wages, chief among them, is the recognition of a CITU-backed union.
Most of the striking workers are assembly operators who put together components or machine operators who mould raw materials into specific parts. Only around 50-60 of them are women. While no woman worker was a part of the protests, CITU organisers said that around half of them did not turn up for work in support of the protest. According to the workers’ estimates, 80% of the production here has been hit by the strike with refrigerators being the worst affected and TV the least.
Workers allege that inside the factory they are treated with barely any respect.
“All of us have our names on our ID cards and most of us have worked here for several years but our immediate supervising engineers never use our names. We are called ‘Ei’ (hey),” said Srinivasan (name changed), who works as an assembly operator.
“If we are late, we are made to stand out of the assembly line for an hour. It is humiliating. We cannot be punished like we are in school,” said another protesting worker.
Workers are entitled to 20 personal leaves and seven casual leaves in a year. But they are not always allowed to use them, they said.
“Even in the case of a death in the family, we will receive phone calls on the third or fourth day, asking when we plan on coming back to work,” said Praveen (name changed), who works as a machine operator.
Workers said that, at present, they officially work nine hours a day from 8 am to 5 pm with a 40-minute break for lunch. However, they are relieved from duty with only a few minutes left to catch their buses that are scheduled to depart at 5:30 pm everyday. They are now calling for an eight-hour workday. For their performance appraisals, the workers are placed under categories A to E on the discretion of their supervisors.
“Many of us are unfairly brought under the ‘E’ category without any explanation and are given the minimum hike of around Rs 1000 year after year. We do have complaints regarding the appraisals and working hours but our main demand is for a union without which we doubt we’ll ever be treated with any kind of respect,” said Praveen.
The fight for a union:
On July 25, 2024, CITU members, led by E Muthukumar, initiated the registration of the ‘Samsung India Workers Union (SIWU)’, which at the time of applying for registration, listed 1455 workers as members. The registration is yet to be approved.
A legal objection was submitted by Samsung India Electronics to the Commissioner of Labour on August 20, a copy of which is available with TNIE.
“We are given to understand that an application has been submitted to your office for the registration of a trade union by using our company name illegally. Since the name ‘Samsung’ is a registered trademark which was certified by the Trade Mark Registry, Govt of India, whoever the party for whatever the cause registering officially is nothing but the absolute violation of the Trade Marks Act 1999,” the letter stated. Samsung is registered under the Goods and Services sector in the Trade Mark registry.
Section 29 (5) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 states that a registered trade mark is infringed by a person if he uses such registered trade mark, as his trade name or part of his trade name, or name of his business concern or part of the name, of his business concern dealing in goods or services in respect of which the trade mark is registered.
In the 2022 State Bank of India Vs Sbi Temporary Sub staff Union case, the Karnataka High Court ruled that a plain reading of Section 29(5) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999, leaves no doubt that usage of the word SBI did not amount to infringement of the trade mark since it was not for the purpose of conduct of any trade or business.
“This is pointless intimidation; we don’t stand to receive commercial gains through this. It is a trade union. Over 95% of the unions in the country have the names of the companies the members work for,” Muthukumar said.
The department wrote back seeking clarifications on certain details which have been issued and all necessary documents submitted. However, they are yet to hear back on the registration status. While workers are urging Samsung to recognise the union, it can be done only after the registration certificate is issued.
Five conciliation meetings have been held so far. Samsung, from its side, has formed a workers' committee and insists on holding talks with them, said CITU members. In the last meeting, CITU reiterated that a committee cannot serve as a replacement for a union.
“Workers have been pressured to join the committee but most of the workers are with us. A committee has no legal standing and cannot support the employees,” Muthukumar said.
While the Labour department maintains that its role is to facilitate communication between the two parties, CITU members said that it can no longer remain a mute spectator and must implement labour laws.
“We have informed our policy to our workers based on relevant laws and regulations, and urged them to return to work immediately. The safety and wellbeing of our workers are a priority. We remain committed to resolving this issue,” a Samsung India spokesperson said. Company sources said that on the first day of the strike, 50% of production was hit. However, Samsung has since ramped up production with contract workers and production is expected to reach normal levels by next week, sources said, adding that Samsung would be happy to speak to workers directly and address any issues that they may have but it is not willing to talk to a union.
Meanwhile, on September 16, 117 workers, including Muthukumar, were detained for allegedly carrying out a march to the Kancheepuram collectorate without obtaining due permissions. Later that week, Samsung reportedly sent workers a show cause notice reiterating its 'No work, no pay' stand. However, workers said they were not too worried since the strike was carried out by the book, after issuing a strike notice to Samsung and cannot be termed 'illegal'.
This July, the National Samsung Electronics Union in South Korea led what was known as Samsung’s first indefinite strike seeking improved pay, a more transparent bonus system and an additional day off in a year. The NSEU has issued a statement in support of the Chennai workers' general strike, stating that it was deeply regrettable that workers at the Indian plant are not provided with fair wages and reasonable working conditions. In South Korea, the average salary in Indian rupees is around Rs 4.5 lakh whereas here the average salary is around Rs 30,000; the labour costs in the Samsung India plant is less than 0.3% of its annual production value, according to the CITU.
Although organised protests like the Samsung workers' strike are not common in the manufacturing hub around Chennai, in 2021 nearly 100 staff from Foxconn Technology India Pvt Ltd staged a protest after an incident of food poisoning. In 2022, workers from Ford's Chennai plant sat in protest demanding a better severance package before the plant wound up operations that June.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior official from the labour department confirmed that Samsung had raised a legal objection to the registration of the union and that the documents are being scrutinised at the Joint Commissioner level.
"There is no breakthrough in the talks by the two parties. It looks like it will take some more time," the official said.
