Hyundai Motor India Faces Labour Unrest at Chennai Plant; Here’s Why

Hyundai Motor India is facing turmoil due to labour unrest at its Chennai plant. The Hyundai Motor India Employees Union (HMIEU), supported by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), on June 23 said it will resort to protest routes if the company’s management doesn’t agree to its demands, including its long-standing request to hike wages to industry-standard practices, the Financial Express reported. The development comes months after a similar workers unrest had taken place at the Samsung Electronics Sriperumbudur plant. 

The company is reportedly involved in discussions with representatives of UUHE to arrive at a mutually agreed solution. 

“We are currently engaged in discussions with union representatives of UUHE, which is the recognised majority union at Hyundai Motor India Limited and as per the labour department of the government of Tamil Nadu. We remain focused on reaching a mutually beneficial outcome,” said the company in an email to Financial Express. 

The unrest has got worse as Hyundai doesn’t recognise HMIEU as its majority workers union. The company acknowledges the United Union of Hyundai Employees (UUHE) as its main union. 

“It [HMIEU] is an unrecognised minority union and in lieu of the ongoing litigation before the court...,” the company reportedly said.

HMIEU President and CITU Kancheepuram secretary, E Muthukumar, however, said that they now command a majority. The president claimed that Hyundai management is involved in signing significant deals like the wage pacts and has ignored it in the deliberation process. 

“Out of 2,420 union workers, 1,356 are with our union. The majority of the workers are with us,” the HMIEU president reportedly said. “We tolerated it for long, but not anymore,” he added.

HMIEU’s struggle to be recognised as the majority union has been a long-standing one. The worker's union had first issued a notice to Hyundai claiming it held a majority membership in 2023. Additionally, it had requested the auto giant to conduct a secret ballot to determine the majority union. In January last year, the union had even reached the Madras High Court, seeking its directive to the company to conduct the poll under the court’s supervision.