About two years ago when General Motors India, the first multi-national car manufacturing company to set up a unit in Gujarat, did not get permission to close its operations in Halol, about 150 kilometers from Ahmedabad, over 800 employees heaved a sigh of relief.
The relief was short-lived. About 300 employees were then transferred to the company's Talegaon plant, near Pune. Remaining 500-odd employees still had a hope as they were retained in the Halol unit.
Their dedication, however, could not prevent the inevitable. The company had announced earlier that it would close the operations on April 28, 2017. It happened on schedule. China-based SAIC is likely to take over the plant as it is keen on entering the Indian market.
GM is reported to have suffered losses, and shares in domestic car segment had also dipped.
Employees have been given transfer orders to move to Talegaon and some have accepted the voluntary separation scheme given by the Detroit-headquartered company.
In a statement, GM India president and MD Kaher Kazem had said that the consolidation of manufacturing at their Talegaon was an important milestone for them. He went on to add that they were mindful of the impacts on their employees in Halol. The company was committed to support them through this necessary transition with generous separation payments or the option of continuity of employment at Talegaon, he said.
Decent it should seem as they have not been terminated. But speaking to them reveals a series of issues and struggle that lie ahead should they accept the transfer.
On May Day, which also happens to be Gujarat's Foundation Day, even as the state government was in an overdrive mode of festivities, the workers protested peacefully outside the company. There were none to listen to their demands, except for some media persons, doing their duty, and police that came for patrolling. The employees were holding placards, demanding their rights and intervention from the state government. The security guards, who once made entry easy for the employees after necessary checks, remained mute spectators.
The question is not about 500 families but also about 20 ancillary units, supplying stuff to GM India, eatable stores and transport buses that brought the employees to the plant from nearby places, including Vadodara.
Having purchased a new house four years ago and with an EMI of Rs 15,000 per month, 36-year-old Vinodsingh Rathod is in double mind whether to move to Talegaon or not. His two children study in Gujarati medium, and in Maharashtra the medium of instruction would be Marathi. Even Rathod does not know how to speak Marathi.
“It is an emotional issue. At the fag end of their career, my parents would wish that their last rites be held in the place they lived throughout. How will it be possible if I move to Maharashtra,” he asks.
The workers demand that SAIC be not allowed to take over the GM India plant without ensuring that they are retained at the Halol plant only. They allege that it is a tactic that the SAIC is taking over. “It already has a stake in GM India and this is being done so that it gets tax benefits. The benefits GM India got all these years are over now,” alleges Bhavesh Jaiswal, vice president of General Motors Employees Union.
Citing the list of 20 cases in Gujarat, Jaiswal says that in all these cases, the employees have been retained by the companies which have taken over from the existing companies.
Rachit Soni, president of the GMEU, feared that if the employees are not retained in Halol, it would set a wrong precedence in the state. Amid slogan shouting and narrating their woes, in a lighter vein, one of the employees says that they have made representations at all levels. “Only Donald Trump remains. We would have done that also if he had to do anything with the decision,” he says.
Incumbent chief minister Vijay Rupani as the then labour minister had promised them to look into the issue, but now nobody has got the time, says Soni. “We even went to meet the PM but were told that he does not have the time. An IAS officer from Gujarat assured us that the PM knows about the issue,” Soni says. “These are nothing but malafide transfers,” the GMEU president alleges.
Mehul Shah, who has worked for 10 years, has been offered Rs 9 lakh as VSS. He has a housing loan of Rs 17 lakh and the EMI is Rs 15,000. “I have not even made my bio-data ever since I joined this company. If you can come and understand our feelings, why can't the employers, who have in the past praised us for our work and dedication,” he asks.
But interesting case is of Jitesh Nare, 37. “I am a Maharashtrian but I still do not want to go to Talegaon. The working style is different. The environment of the place is different. There people have to work in fixed places. In Halol, the easy and hard jobs are rotated so that employees do not get tired and no particular portion of the body suffers more burden, he explains.
Even if you give me Rs 25,000 salary instead of my existing salary of Rs 33,000, I am prepared to stay back in Gujarat, says Ronak Patel, 31. Patel says that the employees fear going to Talegaon as several employees, who were transferred to there in the past, had resigned due to various reasons.
Age is not by their side. Though they might be in their 40s or even 30s, employees say that these days in this sector people maximum up to 27 years of age are offered jobs.