The workers of the Samsung India’s Chennai plant secured a landmark wage revision agreement after a long battle with the company management on Monday, May 19. Samsung management was forced to agree to revise the wages of all workers at the plant, increase leave, and improve the overall working conditions at the factory.
The agreement was negotiated by the newly formed Samsung India Workers Union (SIWU) with the company management, under the mediation of the Tamil Nadu state government, where the plant is situated.
Announcing the agreement, A. Soundararajan, president of the Tamil Nadu Center for Indian Trade Union (CITU), with which the SIWU is affiliated, congratulated the workers and the SIWU leadership for the victory. He also warned the company management against pursuing anti-worker policies moving forward because the workers will not hesitate to launch more struggles in the future for their rights.
As per the terms of the agreement, the wages of the workers at Samsung’s Chennai plant would be raised up to Rs 18,000 (about USD 210) over three years in direct salaries, and an additional Rs 4,000 (about USD 47) in experience-based incentives.
The workers will receive a Rs 9,000 wage hike in the current year and Rs 4,500 in both the second and third years.
All workers who have completed six years in service at the plant by March 31, 2025, and have not been promoted yet would be promoted to the next grade, the agreement says.
SIWU president E. Muthukumar claimed that the management has also agreed to increase the number of leaves and insurance coverage from Rs 250,000 to Rs 300,000, the New Indian Express reported.
A protracted battle
Samsung Electronics’ Chennai plant is one of the company’s two plants in India. It has around 1,700 workers and produces mostly home appliances. More than a thousand Samsung workers, over 80% of the total workforce at the plant, participated in a 38-day strike in September and October last year over the denial of registration to the SIWU, and demands for better wages and working conditions.
The workers faced massive state repression, including arrests of their leadership and physical attacks. The company management also attempted to break their unity by forming a pro-management committee of workers, devising a discriminatory wage structure, and threatening the termination of striking workers.
A vilification campaign was also launched in the media and on social media, portraying the striking workers as a threat to industrialization in the state in an effort to pressure them to end the strike. However, the workers persisted with all forms of attacks and ultimately forced the state government to mediate an agreement on October 16.
Samsung management, which had refused to talk to the striking workers throughout the period of the strike, was forced to agree to talk to its representatives and consider all their demands.
The SIWU was finally registered on January 27 this year, the first such union in Samsung Electronics’s India operations and just the second such union in the history of the South Korean company.
Tamil Nadu government brokers historic agreement
However, the management continued to try to derail the legitimacy of the SIWU by offering more wages to employees not affiliated with the union. The management also suspended 25 office bearers and members of the SIWU. All this was going on simultaneously with multiple rounds of talks with the SIWU.
The oppressive tactics of the management forced the SIWU to issue warnings of fresh protests and strikes earlier this month. However, on Monday an agreement was finally reached between the management and the SIWU.
The Tamil Nadu labor minister C. V. Ganeshan, who was present during the signing of the agreement on Monday, assured the SIWU that all the workers suspended by management will also be reinstated soon.
