Even as workers’ strike at TaTa’s Nano plant in Sanand, 12 kilometer from Ahmedabad, entered the 22nd day on Monday, the workers demanded immediate reinstatement of 28 employees suspended by the company.
The striking workers and representatives of different trade unions on Monday protested against the state government’s move of declaring the strike illegal. The protests were held outside the collector’s office.
Four hundred plus workers have been protesting since February against the suspension of 28 fellow workers.
Shouting anti-TATA Nano slogans like “Tata Nano ki dadagiri nahi chalegi” (high handedness of Tata Nano will not be tolerated), the workers demanded immediate reinstatement of 28 workers. They also demanded that their newly formed Union Bharatiya Kamdar Ekta Sangh (Tata Nano, Sanand) be recognized.
When the strike had entered the 10th day, the Gujarat Labour Department had declared the strike as illegal and had referred the matter to the industrial tribunal.
Representative of workers, Umesh Rathod, while talking to THE WEEK claimed that though an agreement was reached last year between the workers, TATA management and the labour department for reinstating two workers, who were suspended, the management did not do so. Earlier this year, when other workers went and sought update on the reinstatement of the two workers, they were also suspended, he said.
On its part, the company had moved a local court seeking an injunction to prevent agitations.
The Nano Plant was shifted from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand and the Gujarat Government had given sops running into more than Rs 6,500 crore.
