Tyre major MRF on Wednesday declared a lockout at its Kottayam plant following labour unrest. The plant, one of seven facilities owned by the company, produces tyres, tubes and flaps. The Vadavathoor plant in Kottayam produces 3,000 truck and passenger tyres per day, sources said. Besides tyres, the plant has a capacity to produce 10 tonne of tread rubber, five tonne of flaps and 10,000 tubes per day.
The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it had declared the lockout with effect from 5 am on Wednesday on account of labour unrest. Workers were agitating since Friday following an altercation with company officials over the late arrival of a team member. The worker concerned was then put in a different team, leading to the stir. This incident has taken place within a week after a 13-day strike was called off at Maruti Suzuki’s plant at Manesar, which resulted in a loss of more than Rs 400 crore for the company.
MRF’s Kottayam plant employs about about 1,500 workers. ?The strike was initially called by Intuc alone. BMS and Citu workers joined the protest later,? a union representative told FE.
This is not the first time MRF has witnessed a strike. In 2009, the company had seen a lockout at its Arkonam plant in Tamil Nadu following labour unrest. A strike was also reported from the Puducherry unit during the same time.