Friday, March 08, 2013
By Shilpa Chopra
After Mahindra, workers resort to strike at Bosch India plant
The Indian car industry’s health isn’t good. It is ailing and its own people are giving it doses of poison. On the one hand where the Indian government has proposed a Budget that is a mixed bag for the industry, auto companies are skeptic about any recovery in the near future. Maruti, Tata, Toyota and others, almost all of them have fallen prey to high interest rate, low sentiment in the market and the latest budget proposals. In addition to that the industry also has two worker agitations recently. The one had rocked the Nasik plant of Mahindra while soon after that ended, a fresh strike has ensued at the auto component maker Bosch’s plant in Bangalore.
Where Mahindra Bolero, Mahindra Scorpio and other cars production was hit due to the three day strike at the Nasik plant, the Bosch plant strike could have bigger repercussions as it is one of the most vital auto component suppliers. Bosch supplies spark plugs and other lots of auto components to majority of car makers in India. A short supply of Bosch made components means that car makers will not be able to produce new cars.
In the meantime, the Bosch is making all the efforts to bring production back to normal so that production of cars by car makers is not hit. As per the information, the workers at the plant have gone on strike suddenly without a notice and this has been taken seriously by the component maker. The management is in dialogue with the workers union and it is believed that there will be solution soon and the production will be restored soon. It is believed that the tool down at Bosch plant will not have an immediate effect on the production of cars by other car makers but if the strike continues for more than a fortnight then there will be a real trouble.
