Samsung India protests rise amid reports that police detain 900 workers

Samsung India protests: Indian police detain 912 workers, and union members from Samsung Electronics as protests at the company's home appliances plant in Tamil Nadu rise. The strike, now in its fourth week, began on September 9 and saw over 1,000 workers striking for higher wages and official union recognition.

As many as 850 Samsung employees and 60 members of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions that is spearheading the protest were detained, according to Charles Sam Rajadurai, senior state police official, for taking out the procession without permission and for public inconvenience. They are now lodged in four wedding halls with a decision on their release yet to be made.

The protests, which have disrupted production near Chennai, come at an important moment for the "Make in India" initiative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and represent one of the biggest labour strikes in India in recent years. Samsung's plant makes refrigerators, TVs, and washing machines and generates a large share of its $12 billion in revenue in India in fiscal 2022-23.

Samsung earlier said the average monthly salary for full-time manufacturing workers at the plant is more than double the average comparable jobs in the region and said it's open to talking to the workers. However the company has refused to accept the union the workers have organised through CITU and the stalemate persists.

In response to the strike, Samsung has tied up contractual workers and apprentices to help cut the disruption. Employees now average 25,000 rupees ($300) a month; they want that to rise to 36,000 rupees in three years.

It echoes a recent wave of labour unrest in South Korea, where Samsung's biggest union staged a four-day strike last month over the same wage demands after failed negotiations with management. The company has threatened that striking workers may lose their jobs and has branded the strike illegal, a charge to which the employees have taken offence. At such a critical point, the outcome of these protests may set severe implications for labour relations in India and foreign investments into the region.