Strike by more than 1,000 Samsung workers enters a third week in India

NEW DELHI (AP) — A strike by more than 1,000 workers at a Samsung India Electronics plant has entered its third week, and management is at an impasse over their demands for recognition of the employees’ union and higher pay, a workers union spokesman said on Wednesday,

The employees strike in the plant near Chennai, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, started on Sept. 9 with a key demand for a 25-30% pay hike in the average monthly salary of 30,000-35,000 rupees ($425), said K.C. Gopi Kumar, the spokesman for the Samsung India Electronics workers union.

“Our foremost demand is recognition of the union and its rights by the management,” Kumar said.

A Samsung official said that management was prepared to discuss the workers’ demands.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters, said the company wanted to negotiate directly with the employees’ representatives rather than through the Center of Indian Trade Unions, or CITU.

The CITU is an Indian trade union aligned with a communist party.

Samsung said that it paid 1.8 times more in India than the average salary of similar workers employed at other regional companies.

The workers’ union says that up to 70% of production has been disrupted at the Sriperumbudur facility in southern India, which produces televisions, refrigerators and washing machines.

However, the Samsung official said that after an initial disruption of 50% production, the plant was running at near average capacity with nonstriking workers, apprentices and newly hired staff on the job.

The electronics company appealed to striking workers to resume their jobs.

In a communication with the workers, Samsung assured them that it wouldn’t take action against those employees who wished to resume work, but warned them of termination if they continued with their protest, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Ashok Sharma, The Associated Press