MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 9: A prolonged strike by unions at Mahindra & Mahindra's Kandivali plant has been finally called off on Wednesday evening after successfull negotiations between the company and its worker unions. The 20-day old strike was costing the company over Rs 40 lakh per day. ``We have managed to strike a deal and plant would reopen from tomorrow,'' a company official said.A repeat of Premier Automobiles' Kurla plant closure is something which was haunting the top management and it moved into top gear to settle its problems with the unions. Like Premier, M&M was unable to meet the growing expectations of its labour force whose over 4,500 staffers had gone on a strike to protest action taken against some union office bearers. After a prolonged strike, PAL had to sell its Kurla plant to Fiat as losses piled up and corroded the company's balance sheet.The company's tractor divison at Kandivali contributes a major chunk of its profits and the strike would have affected its last quarter results, say analysts. Though the company has an alternate plant to take care of the next three months' supply, a continued strike, nevertheless, would have corrode its bottomlines.The impasse came at a time when the company had announced an impressive 17.3 per cent year-on-year growth in tractors sales for the period from April to November 1999. Its tractor market share was also on a upswing from 27 per cent last year to 29.5 per cent currently. ``If the strike would have persisted, the company could close the current fiscal with reduced profits,'' insiders say.This is not the first time M&M is facing problems with its labour force. Workers at its Igatpuri plant had gone on an indefinite strike few years back which resulted in lower profits and sales in that year.With its crucial multi-utility vehicle project (Project Scorpio) at implementation stage, any loss in profit in company's profit would delayed the project, analysts add.
