Apollo Hoping Unions ‘See Merit’ in PTL Proposal

Apollo Tyres, the sole recipient of products manufactured by PTL Enterprises, has expressed its hope that unions will work with management to save the jobs of more than 1,000 employees at the company’s Kalamassery factory. A list of 12 items management consider inherent for the survival of the factory were on the agenda at a January 7 meeting convened by the Kerala state labour minister, Mr P K Gurudasan. Of these 12 items, reports Apollo Tyres, unions agreed to consider only three. The remainder, they said, would be discussed only after the lockout is lifted. This has, says Apollo, left management “completely disheartened”, as it says previous lockouts have also taken this route without resolution to a single pending request taking place. All 12 items, says the Indian manufacturer, relate to better manufacturing practices and the need to expand and modernise for higher efficiencies. Company management has also appealed to the Kerala State Government to play a positive role, which it says will result in better industrial standards, more employment and even higher Government revenues.

Speaking on the topic, Satish Sharma, chief, India Operations for Apollo Tyres Ltd, said “we have been having these talks for years now. The proposals span the range of making specialty tyres, moving to a better location, expanding to create more employment, continuous operation and so on … sadly virtually none of these are acceptable to the unions.

“In these competitive times, it is impossible to continue to run such a high cost operation with such low returns,” Sharma continued. “I do hope that the unions will see the merit in the management proposal and help the management save over 1000 jobs in Kalamassery.”

According to Apollo, the 12 items put forward by company management as essential for the plant’s survival include meeting the conditions of the Long Term Settlement agreed upon in 2007, full capacity utilisation, modernisation and upgrading of low productive equipment, sourcing components or semi-finished items from competitive vendors, maintaining a disciplined work atmosphere and, if and when feasible, movement to the Irapuram Rubber Park to allow for expansion to take place.

Before the December 6 lockout began the Kalamassery plant was producing 90 tons of tyres per day, three times the amount from when it was acquired in 1995. Apollo Tyres states that resolution of all issues related to production is crucial to assure the factory’s continued viability, particular those related to bringing down what it calls the “high cost of manufacturing prevalent in Kalamassery”.