Samsung workers’ protest in India enters 9th day

NEW DELHI

The workers at a Samsung plant in southern India continued their protest for the ninth day on Tuesday despite detentions by police.

The workers are demanding better wages and improved working conditions.

Around 90% of the 1,723 workers at the Samsung India Sriperumbudur plant in Tamil Nadu state are on strike, according to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), which is supporting the protest.

CITU said more than 100 striking workers were detained Monday, but they were released later.

“The Samsung Sriperumbudur plant producing home appliances alone accounts for around a third of its annual $12 billion revenue extracted from Indian soil. The workers in this plant are subjected to long working hours, the torturous intensity of work pressure to finish each product like refrigerator, washing machine or TV within 10-15 seconds, non-stop work for 4-5 hours at a stretch and unsafe working conditions,” according to the union.

The CITU’s Tamil Nadu Deputy General Secretary S. Kannan on Tuesday demanded that the “police withdraw the cases immediately."

Samsung last week said that it had initiated discussions with workers at the Chennai plant "to resolve all issues at the earliest."