Staff panic as Dunlop halts production

The Federation said that looking at the firm’s tyre prices and demand, the company had no excuse to stop production at this juncture.

The company’s Ambattur plant in Tamil Nadu has also been shut for some time now.

Earlier, on Tuesday, nearly 1,200 employees gathered in front of the Sahagunj unit of the factory to protest against the decision, even as they worried if their families would be allowed to stay on in the run-down accommodation provided to them by Dunlop.

Chandra Prakash Pathak, an employee since 1989, said: “My father worked here. After the company closed down in 1998, the days seemed like a long nightmare. But we survived them. We began to dream again when the Ruias took over, only to face uncertainty again.”

“For the time-being, Dunlop will suspend production at its Sahagunj unit, but there will be no lay-off, no closure or lock-out,” a company spokesman had said.

And though the company has assured the present stay-at-home policy will be till March 31 next year, many wonder if the factory gates will ever open again.

An employee with the engineering section, Sukhdeb Haldar, said the company never made proper efforts to produce tyres to capacity, ever since it reopened in 2006. “The plant operated at less than 25 per cent of its capacity. Many departments did not function. The last tyre produced in the factory was in July this year,” he said.

Meanwhile, there is more discontent at the 100-acre residential complex of the factory. Of the 800 homes, many had to be vacated in the last 10 years when the company’s fortunes fluctuated severely. After the Ruias took over, more than half the houses were demolished, said contractor Ranajit Dasgupta. He had been directed by the company to bring down the houses and then fence the 100-acre estate. “But many employees staying here have refused to leave. I am told the authorities have plans to sell the land to two software companies,” Dasgupta said.

According to the claims made by union leaders, over 50 people, who were either employees at the factory or their relatives, either committed suicide or died as they did not receive medical attention after the factory shut down in 1998.

Meanwhile, no political banner was seen at the factory gates during the protests on Tuesday. A union leader of CITU said: “We have decided to form a single union.”