Employees at Samsung Chennai's plant demand union rights, better pay

Major production difficulties have occurred at South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics' Chennai plant after approximately 1,500 employees have been on strike for the past 11 days.

One of Samsung's two plants in India, located in Chennai City, has around 2,000 employees and generates over one-third of the company's $12 billion (£9 billion) in revenue from sales of home appliances annually.

Every day, the protesting workers gather close to the 17-year-old facility, demanding that the company recognize the Samsung India Labour Welfare Organization (SILWU), their recently established labor organization.

They claim that the only thing that can assist them in negotiating with management for higher pay and hours worked is a union.

The protest is one of the biggest Samsung has witnessed in recent times, coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to attract foreign investment by presenting India as a competitive manufacturing hub instead of China.

In a statement, Samsung India said its employees' well-being was its main focus. It said, "We have started discussions with our employees at the Chennai plant to resolve all issues as soon as possible."

Approximately 104 laborers were taken into custody by the police for participating in an unapproved protest march. The demonstrators were set free in the late afternoon.

"The workers have decided to strike indefinitely till their demands are met,” said A Soundararajan, member of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), backed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

CITU has backed the new union in the factory. According to Mr. Soundararajan, the workers' three main requests are that Samsung acknowledge the new union, permit collective bargaining, and reject other unions because around 90% of the workforce is SILWU members.

According to CITU, workers who make an average of ₹25,000 ($298; £226) per month are asking for increments that add up to 50% over the next three years.

CITU also claimed that employees at the company were working four to five hours straight without a break, were subjected to unsafe working conditions, and were "pressurized to finish each product—like a refrigerator, washing machine, or TV—within 10-15 seconds."

Additionally, Mr Soundararajan said that the management had intimidated their families and put pressure on the employees to quit the new union.

"The company categorically denies all the allegations and that it maintains absolute compliance with all the existing labor laws," said a top official from Samsung India.

In the meantime, CV Ganesan, the Labor Welfare Minister for Tamil Nadu, said he has assured union officials that negotiations were underway to settle their differences.

"We will fulfil the demands of the workers," he said.

One of the protestors said that he joins hundreds of employees wearing their blue Samsung India uniforms every day at 8:00 am and remains till 5:00 pm.

The protestors are provided with water and food by the union, and they are shielded from the weather by a temporary canvas tent. The employees utilize the outdoors since there are no restrooms.

"Since the factory was set up, employees have been working without complaints or a union. But things have been getting bad over the past couple of years, and now we need the support of a union," said a protestor.

He continued by saying that his family's finances are suffering as a result of his wages not keeping up with the rising cost of living.

The Samsung Group has a reputation for forbidding unions from representing its employees until 2020. However, after the company's chairman was charged with bribery and market manipulation, the corporation came under heavy public scrutiny.

Millions of workers in India join trade unions, which are frequently supported by communist parties, and utilize their political influence to enforce labor laws and bargain for better working conditions.

"Foreign companies set up in India but resist following local laws on workers' rights to association and collective bargaining" alleged Soundararajan.

Numerous well-known international corporations have established factories in India, such as Apple and Amazon.

However, labor rights groups claim that many of them conspire with state governments to repress workers' rights while underpaying and burdening the Indian workforce with the extra load.

According to labor economist Shyam Sundar, multinational companies employ a variety of "human resource strategies" to stop employees in developing nations like India from organizing unions.

One of their main arguments is that employees should create "worker-led" internal unions instead of joining politically supported external ones.

"This ensures that the management has some control over the union's activities," added Sundar.

Soundararajan claimed that the workers at the Chennai plant had been presented with this alternative by management as well, but they had rejected it. Samsung India's top executive said the company "fully supports unions but not ones backed by a third party."

According to Mr Sundar, the second strategy is to hire young, unskilled laborers by offering them a competitive starting salary, especially if they are from rural areas. "After a few months, it is claimed that these 'trainees' will become permanent employees, but this doesn't happen. Pay also remains flat or has very low increments."

"The rapid growth of "flexible workers" — employees hired on contract — has become a key strategy of multinational corporations to stop unionizing by ensuring a pliant workforce," he added.

As per the most recent government data, around 40% of the workforce at industrial facilities in India in 2022 consisted of contractual laborers, who accounted for one out of every five workers employed in factories.

"Companies use the threat of re-location or non-expansion to discourage state governments from enforcing labor laws," said Mr Sundar.

"But workers can leverage global labor unions to pressure companies to abide by international labor laws," he added.