CITU workers & Samsung employees arrested in Chennai

Chennai: Over 900 members of CPI-M backed Centre of India Trade Unions (CITU), including employees of Samsung Electronics, were on Tuesday arrested for blocking a main road in Kanchipuram as the protest by agitated workers of the South Korean company’s workers at its Sunguvarchatram plant entered its fourth week. 

Several hundreds of CITU members across the state were also detained as they put their weight behind the protesting employees of Samsung Electronics, who demanded fair pay and the right to form a union inside the Sunguvarchatram plant. 

“We have taken 910 CITU workers into custody,” K Shanmugam, Superintendent of Police, Kanchipuram district, told DH. However, he didn’t give a break-up of employees of Samsung’s Sunguvarchatram plant who were detained for protesting on Gandhi Road, a busy junction in Kanchipuram. 

CITU members claimed that over 500 employees of Samsung’s Sunguvarchatram plant participated in the protest on Tuesday. They said the workers are very clear that they won’t attend to work until their demand for a “fair and equitable” pay is accepted. 

Asked whether the arrested union workers will be released by the evening, Shanmugam said, “law will take its own course.”

Employees of Samsung Electronics have been protesting outside the plan since September 9 demanding recognition of the Samsung India Workers Union that they have formed and “fair pay” for them. The Union is yet to be recognised by the company despite demands for its constitution for quite some time. 

This is the second time that employees of Samsung India are being arrested with 118 being detained on September 16.

Several rounds of talks between the CITU, Tamil Nadu government, and Samsung India in the past four weeks have failed to reach any agreement with the workers and the South Korean electronics major sticking to their known stands. 

 “We are in touch with Samsung Electronics’ management and are trying to sort out the issue. We hope a solution will be found sooner than later,” a state government official told DH. 

The development comes at a time the Tamil Nadu government is bullish on attracting investments in several sectors, especially electronics. Global technology giant Cisco launched production from the Flex factory last week, while Jabil is setting up a plant in Tiruchirapalli. Moreover, Tamil Nadu is home to key Apple Inc suppliers like Foxconn, Pegatron, and Tata Electronics.