About 1,000 retrenched workers of General Motors India’s shuttered plant at Talegaon near Pune in Maharashtra have begun an “indefinite relay hunger strike” from October 2, demanding reinstatement at the factory which has been sold to Hyundai Motor India. Hyundai Motor has signed an Asset Purchase Agreement with the American automobile maker General Motors to purchase the Talegaon plant, but the 1,000 odd permanent workers of General Motors are not part of the deal. The General Motors Employees Union (GMEU) which is fighting the case in the courts had also appealed to the Maharashtra government seeking its intervention to ensure they continue to be employed by the new owners. Workers are miffed that despite several assurances by the State Industries Minister to find a solution, nothing has materialised. “The state government was repeatedly requested for a meeting to get justice, but it has not taken the workers’ issues seriously,” the GMEU said in a press statement. The indefinite relay hunger strike is being supported by the Maharashtra State Labour Action Committee and Shramik Ekta Federation. The union has demanded that all General Motors workers be absorbed by Hyundai Motor India with existing service conditions. They want the Government to revoke Hyundai’s permission to take, if their demands are not met.
