For over a week now, the General Motors Employees Union, comprising of a little over 1,000 retrenched workers from American automobile major General Motors India’s Talegaon plant in Maharashtra, are on an indefinite relay hunger strike. The workers are seeking reinstatement and are attempting to catch the attention of the state government. They allege that they were illegally terminated by the company in 2020.
Having lost hope from all sides, and to protest in the Gandhian way, they commenced their strike on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation.
Hundreds of their family members including spouses, mothers and daughters are seen camping there from time to time and so are union leaders of other nearby factories expressing solidarity and boosting their morale to continue their fight for workers’ rights and justice.
The venue of the strike has started drawing crowds, including politicians from opposition parties, but authorities from the ruling dispensation are conspicuous by their absence.
In the last nearly three years, eight of the workers among those who did not accept separation packages from General Motors India, have died due to some reason or the other including one or more in accidents while undertaking delivery jobs for applications, said an Union member.
The rest who once worked on the shop floor manufacturing swanky automobiles for the domestic as well as exports markets are economically impoverished and doing odd jobs to make a living.
“Our career and lives have been ruined. No one is giving us a job in any factory because we challenged GM’s decision in the industrial and labour courts. The laid-off employees are doing menial jobs like selling fruits and vegetables and some have become waiters in restaurants. Most have become delivery boys for Swiggy and Zomato and for other logistics companies,” a retrenched worker said asking not to be identified as feared being targeted.
“We went to the Industrial Court and Labour Court in Pune and even to the High Court and Supreme Court and every where we had to face the battery of top lawyers hired by GM. Initially, the courts had ruled in our favour and had declared that the termination of job contracts was prima facie illegal but now the state’s Labour Ministry and the Industrial Court have approved the plant closure in a hurry for the handover of the plant. We seem to have reached a dead end,” the worker added.
In a statement, General Motors Employees Union president Sandeep Begade said, “The Chief Minister Maharashtra Government should look into the ongoing labour issue which has affected thousands of workers and their families. This matter must be resolved immediately.”
But General Motors has disputed the claims of the union.
“Everyone previously employed by General Motors at the Talegaon Plant has been legally separated from GM and were offered a separation package more than seven times the statutory requirement. The labour union declined to sign and accept this package, even when it was offered through the High Court. General Motors took all necessary steps, and more, to offer fair compensation of employees, despite the actions of the union,” a General Motors official spokesperson said.
Cut to Sanand in Gujarat.
For about 9 months now, 820 workers who once worked for another American auto major Ford Motor Company India at its car manufacturing plant at Sanand in Gujarat which was sold to Tata Motors Ltd. in January 2023 are undergoing upskilling/reskilling training in electric vehicles making.
Ford, while handing over the plant and machinery to the Tatas, also transferred the 820 employees as part of the deal.
These employees come to the factory on all working days not to manufacture cars but to study, with the company bearing all expenses. Those who had joined Ford with an ITI certificate are undergoing a diploma course and those who had a diploma are studying B.Tech. In a life-changing experience, these workers, who had knowledge in mechanical and automobile engineering as needed for vehicles with ICE, are now learning electrical and electronics, which are the required skillsets for manufacturing EVs.
The faculty from Ganpat University comes to the factory to teach and for a whole year the workers are doing nothing other than studying.
“The Sanand Plant-II [which was acquired by Tata Motors from Ford] will be operational from January 2024. We got one year of free time to re-skill the employees who joined us from Ford. This year 100% of them are undergoing training full time. From next year there will be hybrid programme as they have to work in the shop floor,” said Sitaram Kandi, Vice President – HR, Passenger Vehicles and Electric Vehicles, while providing a detailed presentation of the company’s re-skilling/up-skilling programmes.
“This [The Ford plant] is an acquired plant. We want to make it our advanced manufacturing plant. Since the 820 shop floor operators came as part of the deal, 100% of them are undergoing training. This is an unique story of integrating employees of another company into our fold and upskilling them,” he added.
“Curated learning programmes developed by the Ganpat University in collaboration and with inputs from Tata Motors are being offered on the latest, future oriented manufacturing technologies including Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing, Advanced Control Engineering, and Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Processes,” Tata Motors said.
“Trainings on new age auto systems like ADAS, Connected cars, CESS and Control system, are being delivered via a judicious mix of classroom sessions and practical trainings at various levels – Postgraduate (M.Tech.), Graduate (B.Tech.), and Diploma. Individual candidates are enrolled for the appropriate level programme as per their eligibility. These advanced courses, which began in February 2023, are being enthusiastically pursued by over 820 employees,” the company added.
Come January 2024, these employees will join other fresh recruits to manufacture Tata-branded EVs.
Back to Talegaon
General Motors India set up its second car manufacturing plant at Talegaon in 2008. Its first plant in Halol in Gujarat, set up in the mid-1990s, was sold in 2017 to China’s SAIC Motor which is now manufacturing Morris Garages (MG)-branded SUVs and electric cars in India. In the same year, GM India stopped selling its cars in India but the Talegaon plant kept on manufacturing cars for the exports markets.
Manufacturing was completely stopped in December 2020 and the company announced a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for separation. The Employees Union did not accept the offer. Before that the company had applied for closure of the plant, which was challenged by the workers.
Prior to that, in January 2020, another Chinese automobile company Great Wall Motors (GWM) signed an agreement with GM India to acquire this plant. A few months after that it signed a MoU with the Maharashtra government to invest in the plant.
In early 2021, when GM India approached the government for various approvals to expedite the sale to GWM, the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government did not give approvals. This was the time when the relationship of India with China was at the lowest due to the face-off at the Indo-China border and the Centre was rejecting all investment proposals from Chinese companies. Due to the lack of regulatory approvals, the deal collapsed as the term sheet signed between the two companies expired on June 30, 2022.
Enters Korean auto major Hyundai Motors India.
In March 2023, Hyundai signed a term sheet to acquire with GM’s Talegaon plant. The term sheet covered the proposed acquisition of land, building and certain machinery and equipment for manufacturing.
In August 2023, Hyundai announced to buy that plant from GM but it did not specify any amount. Just before that, the state government had given the green signal. There is no clarity as to when Hyundai would take over the plant but it has said nothing regarding the fate of the erstwhile GM workers who are seeking employment at the same factory.
“General Motors is looking forward to signing the final agreement for the sale of the Talegaon Plant so that the buyer can begin to invest in opportunities and growth in Maharashtra,” a General Motors official spokesperson said.
