Samsung strike: Workers arrested as battle for union recognition continues

Tamil Nadu government swiftly dismantled protest site, arrested workers after they rejected a pact reached between Samsung and a “workmen committee”.

Samsung workers in Tamil Nadu are locked in a fierce struggle for union recognition, facing arrests and tent demolitions while the government claims a resolution with a separate committee.  | Photo Credit: Siddarth Muralidharan

“There are three children and a heart patient in this house. What should we understand if you arrest someone at 11 pm without stating any reason,” asked a Samsung worker’s friend as policemen stood on his doorstep in a video widely circulated on October 8 midnight. Ten workers were arrested that night, according to S. Kannan, Tamil Nadu CITU deputy general secretary.

On the dawn of October 9, the striking workers found that their makeshift tent at Echoor, where they had been protesting for 30 days, had been dismantled by Tamil Nadu Police. However, they reassembled at the same place, led by E. Muthukumar, CITU Kanchipuram secretary and SIWU (Samsung India Workers Union) president, and A. Soundararajan, CITU Tamil Nadu president. About 600 workers walked to the site, where police promptly moved them and their leaders to two wedding halls in Sunguvarchatram. The INDIA bloc parties in Tamil Nadu—including the CPI, Congress, and VCK—met the workers as per their announcement on October 8.

On September 16 too, the police had detained 118 workers for attempting to march to the District Collector’s Office in Kanchipuram. Speaking to Frontline, Muthukumar said that this time the police had arrested 10 workers at night and “produced five before the court, which ordered their release”. The whereabouts of the others are unknown, he said. “Three workers returned after we filed a habeas corpus petition. This is not right.”

Emotions are running high among the workers. On October 8, a tempo van carrying Samsung workers toppled near Kanchipuram, triggering allegations of deliberate sabotage. In a separate incident, a policeman boarded a bus in Kanchipuram, demanding Samsung workers show their ID cards for “self-verification” and said he was doing it to “prevent anything major happening,” eyewitnesses told Frontline.

The workers of Samsung India Electronics, which has a factory in Sipcot Industrial Park in Sriperumbudur, 45 km outside Chennai, have been protesting since September 9, primarily demanding the registration and recognition of SIWU, their union. They claim that 1,550 of Samsung’s 1,723 workers are registered with SIWU.

On October 7, State Ministers T.R.B. Rajaa (Industries), C.V. Ganesan (Labour Welfare), and Tha. Mo. Anbarasan (MSME) met with a workmen committee and the Samsung management. The next day they announced a resolution, claiming that the company had agreed to 14 worker demands. CITU rejected this, stating that the workmen committee’s members were neither part of SIWU, formed in July, nor were strike participants.

Muthukumar said: “Assuring us after the Secretariat meeting that we would be informed of the Chief Minister’s opinion the next day, then releasing a Memorandum of Agreement signed by non-striking workers on the same day is condemnable.”

Samsung India factory at Sriperumbudur, Chennai. Samsung India is embroiled in a fierce labour dispute as workers reject a deal struck between the company and a management-backed “workmen committee,” leading to swift government action.  | Photo Credit: BIJOY GHOSH/THE HINDU

The disputed agreement reportedly outlines Samsung’s agreement to provide air-conditioned buses, new medical rooms, locker replacements, and break room upgrades. As news of the purported resolution spread on social media and news channels, CITU leaders clarified that they were not involved in the discussions and that the strike would continue. SIWU representatives challenged claims of an “illegal” strike and told Frontline that they had notified Samsung’s management on August 19, well before the September 9 strike.

Amid growing support from alliance parties, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu told the press on October 9, “The government is not hostile towards CITU. The matter is sub-judice. The Labour Welfare Department will fulfil whatever order the court passes.”

While acknowledging the successful registration of CITU unions in factories near the Samsung site, the Minister noted that in this case the management had objected to the union’s formation. Soundararajan countered, “Samsung’s pressure on the Tamil Nadu government and the Labour Department is blocking SIWU’s registration. It is mandatory to register within 45 days, but they are delaying it.” SIWU representatives claimed that the government has been trying to make them accept the management-formed workmen committee from the first, and that they saw no difference between the management’s and the government’s statements.

Supporters of the ruling DMK have launched an online campaign against the protest, urging the party to “kick out” communists from the coalition. However, the DMK trade union, the Labour Progressive Front (LPF), has supported SIWU from the start. LPF was the first signatory to the all-union demonstration at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai on September 18. On October 5, the Left parties—CPI(M), CPI, and CPI(ML)—organised a protest outside Chennai’s Rajarathinam Stadium, seeking Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s intervention. The party leaders were arrested that day.

SIWU told Frontline that its main demand is union registration and recognition, and they would end the strike once this is achieved. Kannan said the government had delegated trade union registrar responsibilities to the court and argued that “this is the government’s duty according to law”.

Notably, the AIADMK (Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party), the BJP, and emerging parties such as Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam have remained largely silent on the Samsung workers’ protest.