After Ford Motors went public with its decision to cease car manufacturing in India, representatives of workers’ unions at Sanand plant in Gujarat, in their first meeting held with the management on Monday, sought job security over monetary compensation. The meeting had 13 members, including two representatives from the Ford Motors management.
“We have about 2,000-plus workers at the Sanand plant. This includes 1,200 employees who are paid on an hourly basis. The company has not said anything about what they plan to do with the manpower at Sanand. In the meeting held today, they did not give us any update, but asked us what our demands were, so that the same could be relayed to the top management.
We have clearly told them that we need job security and nobody should be laid off,” said Vijay Bapodra, president of Karnavati Kamdar Ekta Sangh, a union of 850 workers.
According to the union, most workers at the Sanand plant are around 30 years old and have various debts, including home loans. “A monetary compensation is not acceptable to us.
Thinking that we all are permanent employees, many of us have taken loans, including those for buying homes and vehicles. So only a stable job is our demand. If anything goes wrong, things would become difficult for both the company and the state government,” Bapodra said.
Last week, in a video conference with senior official of Ford Motors, the workers were informed that the vehicle operations unit (VO plant) at Sanand will be closed down by the last quarter of this calendar year, while the unit manufacturing engines within the same campus will continue to function.
The engine plant at Sanand has about 450 workers, which includes 130 members from the union and trainees.The Ford Motors plant at Sanand, spread over 460 acres in North Kotpura village, adjoining the Tata Motors plant, was commissioned in 2015 and has been manufacturing the Figo and Aspire models. The company has invested close to Rs 6,200 crore in setting up the plant.