Strike by workers of key Samsung plant near Chennai enters 2nd week; their top demand – right to form a union

On Monday, around 120 Samsung workers attempting to march to the district collector’s office in Kanchipuram were detained by Tamil Nadu Police for holding a protest without permission. They were later released.

The strike is backed by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a national labour organisation with ties to the CPI(M). Many more labour groups have now announced plans to stage a protest in Chennai in solidarity with the workers.

Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK fears that the broader show of support could escalate tensions between Samsung and its workforce, as well as between the company and state authorities.

The strike is taking place at the plant in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, where Samsung produces a wide range of home appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines, and televisions, making up around one-third of the company’s revenue from India.

It comes at a time when Tamil Nadu has been aggressively pushing for foreign investment. During Chief Minister M K Stalin’s recent visit to the United States, the state secured pacts for investment of over Rs 7,000 crore from US companies.

A state government official said, “The challenge before the government here is that there are no core issues (like a wage hike demand) that the government can intervene and solve. The company is also not agreeing with their (the workers’) main demand of allowing a union because they suspect a conspiracy behind it.”

“Samsung thinks the CITU is problematising issues as they never faced such issues before since they started the plant in 2007,” the official said.

CITU state president A Soundararajan told The Indian Express that the workers announced the formation of a union in June after 16 years of the factory’s existence. This, he said, showed that they were pushed to the wall by the management.

“The core demand is the right to form the union, the right to collective bargaining, and meaningful discussion with the majority union. The wage increase can be discussed later, but management refuses to allow any union at all,” he said.

The Samsung India Employees Union was formed in June, and demands for its recognition have been met with resistance from the company’s management. Soundararajan alleged that the company has used intimidation tactics to prevent unionisation, including denying leave and transferring workers. “At one point, we realised we couldn’t tolerate this anymore and declared the strike,” he said.

The strike, which involves around 1,350 of the plant’s 1,723 permanent workers, is one of the largest labour disruptions that Samsung has faced in India. Contract workers, who make up a significant portion of the plant’s total workforce of around 5,000, are not part of the strike, but production has slowed.

Samsung has been reluctant to engage with the union, with its affiliation to CITU being a particular area of concern for the company, according to officials.

A Samsung official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fear was that the CITU link could result in such strikes happening in other plants as well. The official said the management has already conveyed to the government that they are ready to talk to employees, but not with the CITU.

In July, Samsung Electronics had faced labour unrest in its home country of South Korea, where over 6,500 workers went on a three-day strike demanding better pay and improved working conditions.

Referring to that, Soundararajan said, “In South Korea, they weren’t allowing registered unions either, and they’re doing the same here… The government’s delay in registering the union was not helping either. According to Indian labour law, the government should have processed the union’s request for registration within 45 days, but more than 90 days have passed without any reply from the government,” he said.

Samsung had issued a statement last week saying they are “committed to resolving all issues at the earliest”, and initiated talks with workers. However, there has been little progress.