300 striking Tata Nano workers detained

AROUND 300 striking workers of Tata Nano plant were on Saturday (March 19) detained by police when they gathered outside the plant to protest the suspension of their co-workers at Sanand GIDC in Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

Police detained them soon after they gathered at around 11 a.m. to protest amid tight police security outside the Nano plant. Police said protesters gathered without written permission to hold a rally.

“We have detained all protesting workers, around 300 of them, after they gathered at gate number 2 of GIDC without written permission from the magistrate for the event,” said Ahmedabad Rural DySP P O Bhatt.

The workers had decided to go ahead with their plan to hold protest rally near Tata Nano plant site at Sanand after talks with the company over re-instatement of 26 suspended workers failed.

Tata Motors has maintained that the company has no issues recognising an “internal union,” but workers have claimed that their main demand to re-instate suspended workers is not being met by the company management.

As many as 422 workers are on strike since February 22 mainly to protest suspension of their colleagues, demanding that the suspension be immediately revoked.

The matter escalated when the company earlier suspended two workers for indiscipline and another 24 after workers allegedly damaged new vehicles inside the plant. The strike was later declared illegal by the state government.

Tata’s Nano plant was shifted from West Bengal to Gujarat as it was facing protest over land acquisition in West Bengal.

The company recently scaled down production of Nano cars to 10 per cent of its capacity and announced plans to produce other models from the existing facility at Sanand.