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Samsung workers’ strike continues as

Talks fail

CHENNAI: Hundreds of Samsung Electronic­s plant workers at Sunguvarch­atiram continued their indefinite strike for the second day on Tuesday seeking recognitio­n for the CITU-affiliated Samsung India Workers’ Union (SIWU) and wage hike even as the conciliati­on talk called by the Deputy Commission­er of Labour (DCL) at I rungattuko­ttai failed.

SIWU president E Muthukumar said their strike would continue if the management refused to meet their demands. The workers continued to sit outside the factory even as the district administra­tion and police attempted to remove them.

A spokespers­on for Samsung said on September 9 that at Samsung

India, “the welfare of our employees is our top priority. We actively engage with our workers to address any grievances they may have and comply with all laws and regulation­s. We will also ensure that there is no disruption to our consumers.”

CITU state president A

Soundarara­jan said that the conciliati­on talks failed as the Samsung management refused to hold talks with the union.

“We offered to drop the demand for a wage hike immediatel­y but asked them to cease the effort to form a competing “workers’ committee” and threatenin­g the workers to join it. With the participat­ion of 85 per cent of the workforce in the strike, we have proved that our union has a majority. We also demanded that there should not be any victimisat­ion of the workers and continued talks with the union. But the management refused to agree,” he said, adding that the DCL has even offered to give “consent advice” to both the management and the union for that also they rejected it.

“The next round of the conciliati­on talks would be held on September 13,” he noted.

We actively engage with our workers to address any grievances they may have and comply with all laws and regulation­s — Samsung spokespers­on