Unending Woes of the Workers
THE FUTURE OF THE G.M. HALOL
PLANT WORKERS IS DOOMED
The car manufacturing plant of
General Motors is operating in
India from 1996, at Halol of Gujarat.
This American automaker has a
capacity of 110,000 units a year.
In this plant of Halol of Gujarat
which is touted to be Detroit of the
East, utility vehicles Tavera, Sedan
Cruize and multi-utility vehicle
ENJOY are manufactured . Around
1100 workers are working in the
plant and 40% of the workers are
contractual workers who get paid
a minimum wage of Rs.278/- a day,
depending on their skills. There
are more workers who worked more
than 10 years, but not regularized
or made the workers of the
company. The 60% or more of the
permanent workers get paid
anything between Rs 14,000/- to
Rs 30,000/- a month depending on
their skills and years of service.
Recently the CEO of General
Motors of Mary Barra came to India,
and met the Prime minister Modi
and briefed him with the company’s
plans in India.
After that she coolly
announced that it would shut down
its manufacturing unit in Halol in
Gujarat in June 2016, and relocate
its manufacturing at Talegaon plant
in Maharashtra and strengthen it.
Thus the CEO of General
Motors (America) has doomed the
future of Halol plant workers in
Gujarat.
Though the Halol plant was
operating in Gujarat for decades,
it has not done much for local
development nor had it created
any vibrant eco system around
Chandrapur village where it is
situated.
Even the record of labour
relations of General Motors
management is not appreciable.
September 2015
G.M. India Halol plant has
been mired in controversies related
to labour-unrests. There have
been repeated strikes and sits-outs
in the plant since 2010.
Though the C.E.O. of General
Motors has grandly announced that
the company is committed to India
for the long term and wants to have
a sustainable, profitable business
here and India is a very important
market and announced plans to
invest $ 1 billion in the country, a
majority of which will go into its plant
in Maharasht Ʉ