Thaindian News

Chennai, Dec 13 (IANS) With the AIADMK storming to power in Tamil Nadu, its trade union wing Anna Thozhir Sangam Peravai (ATSP) is now entering multi-national companies like Hyundai Motor India Limited, Foxconn India and others located near here.

“We are hoisting our union flag Wednesday evening outside Hyundai Motor India factory. Workers are not satisfied with the functioning of the two unions that exist there and have approached us to help them secure their rights,” R. Chinnasamy, state general secretary of ATSP told IANS.

This will be the third workers’ union at HMIL after Hyundai Motor India Employees Union (HMIEU) and the apolitical United Union of Hyundai Employees (UUHE).

According to HMIL workers, one more union representing the cause of contract workers is on the anvil sometime next month.

Ironically, HMIL management which objected to a single flag post of HMIEU not long ago will now see see more union flags fluttering outside its factory gates.

Currently, there are three flag posts outside the factory at Irrungattukottai near here.

The HMIL management has recognised UUHE, which it considers as apolitical.

“With the AIADMK labour wing deciding to hoist its flag outside the factory, the company management has told us that there will be no change in their policy of negotiating only with an apolitical trade union,” said a UUHE official on condition of anonymity.

He said out of around 2,000 workers in HMIL’s two plants, around 1,280 are members of UUHE.

“Out of the remaining, some are members of both the unions - UUHE and HMIEU - and some are non-members,” he said.

“In the Sriperumbudur industrial belt, our first entry was into Foxconn India and now into Hyundai Motor India. Apart from other demands, we will also insist on the reinstatement of 31 dismissed workers of the car manufacturer,” Chinnasamy said.

However, HMIEU leaders are unperturbed by the new entry.

“We have been in existence for the past several years and the workers know about us,” R. Gunasekaran, vice president at HMIEU told IANS.

However, leaders of different unions agree that HMIL will be the test case for ATSP to expand its network in other industrial units in the Sriperumbudur belt even though it has entered Foxconn India.

At Foxconn India, the DMK-affiliated Labour Progressive Front (LPF) was the leading union prior to the government change in the state this May and the entry of ATSP.

“We negotiated a three-year wage agreement. It is not our members who were instrumental in getting ATSP into Foxconn,” C.V.M.P. Ezhilarasan, president of the Foxconn India ‘Thozilalar Munnetra Sangam’ which is affiliated to LPF, told IANS.

According to Chinnasamy, the ATSP-affiliated union has majority membership in Foxconn India.