At last, starting next week, General Motors and Ford Motor will receive normal supplies of auto components from an Indian producer, after a 45-day strike ended.
Rico Auto Industries Ltd. will resume full supplies to General Motors and Ford Motor after workers agreed to end their strike last night, Surendra Singh Chaudhary, senior vice president in charge of human resources, said by phone today. About 2,200 workers struck at the company’s factory (at Gurgaon near New Delhi), demanding that 16 of their colleagues who were suspended be reinstated.
General Motors and Ford temporarily shut factories because of the shortage of components, even as they strive to boost sales amid the worst global recession since the 1930s. Automakers sourced $3.6 billion worth of parts from India in the year ended March 2008, compared with $330 million a decade ago, according to the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India.
“Outsourcing has more advantages than the risks involved as it offers the huge benefit of low cost,” said Deepesh Rathore, a New Delhi-based analyst at IHS Global Insight Inc. “Such incidents of labor problems will be quickly forgotten.”
The strike at Rico Auto started Sept. 21 and forced the closure of a General Motors sport-utility vehicle assembly plant in Delta Township, Michigan, and the suspension of one of two shifts at a Warren, Michigan, transmission factory, a person familiar with the situation said last month. Ford Motor shut a plant in Canada for a week.
Rico agreed to take back eight suspended workers immediately, and another eight will be kept under suspension pending an inquiry, Chaudhary said. Prem Kumar, president of the Rico Auto Employees Union, also said workers agreed to end the strike following the settlement.
November 9th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
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