MRF Strikers Plan New Protest Strategies

Striking workers at tyre MRF’s Arakonam and Puducherry plants in India are considering surrendering their important ration and voter identify cards in protest against a wage agreement signed with a rival labour union. The worker’s sit-in strike began on May 9 and led to a lockout being declared at the Arakonam site on May 17. Production at both locations has come to a complete halt as a result of the industrial action.

The leader of the union leading the strike, MRF United Workers Union (UWU) president P.V. Paramasivam, was reported by IANS as saying “It all depends on the management’s response. We plan to send fax messages to the governors and chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. After that, we will consult workers at both the plants about surrendering our ration and voter identity cards.” Paramasivam added that if the courts ruled in favour of their removal from the two facilities, “agitation” would continue outside MRF’s headquarters. “We are looking at democratic ways of agitation so as to turn the attention of the people and the government to our plight,” he continued.

Paramasivam accuses MRF management of signing a wage agreement on May 9 with another union, the MRF Arakonam Worker’s Welfare Union, which he claimed does not represent the majority of workers. He claims that “’on paper there will be a wage increase. But in reality, a worker will not get anything more than what he has been drawing now.” The UWU, formed in 2002, wants MRF management to hold a secret ballot to ascertain which union has a majority membership – and then negotiate only solely with this union.

Paramasivam said one of the union’s demands was wage parity with that of the company’s Thiruvottiyur plant workers, where the monthly wage is approximately Rs18,000 (£245).