Lockout at Toyota Bidadi Plant

[Mathew]

Lockout at Toyota Bidadi Plant

It is bad to hear the ongoing issues with Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM). Toyota declares lockout at its Bidadi facility [reference : Times of India]

A statement issued by TKM read, "under the instigation of the union, certain sections of the employees have resorted to deliberate stoppages of the production line, abuse and threatening of supervisors thereby continuously disrupting business for the past 25 days."

 

[Mathew]

TKMPL's current plant at Bidadi, Karnataka is spread across 432 acres and has a capacity of 80,000 vehicles per annum. TKMPL's second manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Bangalore, Karnataka has a capacity of 70,000 vehicles per annum. Both plants have a combined capacity of 150,000 vehicles per annum. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Kirloskar_Motor]


TKMPL's current plant at Bidadi, Karnataka


Number of Employees.


[http://www.tkap.com]


Toyota Plant Visit In Bangalore - YouTube


Toyota may use brass to help operate Bidadi plant
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is planning to resume production at the Bidadi plant even if talks with the striking unionised employees fail. The company management and the agitating workers are scheduled to meet tomorrow at a reconciliation meeting called by the labour commissioner. TKM on Sunday declared a lock-out after the 1,550 strong unionised employees went on flash strike demanding reinstatement of workers who were dismissed on charges of indiscipline. Toyota Kirloskar Motor Employees Union (TKMEU) is affiliated to Citu, but the company management has not accepted the affiliation.

The management has reportedly started working on alternate plans to resume production in a bid to stave off the strike impact on market delivery. It could ask the managerial and supervisory staff to get on to the production line to minimise the market impact. “We will ensure that the market delivery position is not affected. We are hopeful of meeting the demand through alternate arrangement if talks fail,” said a company official to ET. The company's entire staff undergoes active production training as part of the induction program. In fact, TKM had pressed its managerial staff into work when it faced a similar situation some years back. The company said lifting of lock out was not required to resume production as the lock out concerned only the Grade eight employees, who are unionised. [The Economic Times]

Also to read, Zee News Article []Toyota declares lockout at Bidadi as labour trouble lingers

What to Observe
How they are going to tackle this issue??

 

[anshuman8]

After Honda and Maruti the third Japanese is in trouble. Also Hyundai was into trouble earlier with labour.

 

[Mathew]

Negotiations over a wage increase have been taking place for the past 10 months. But till date nothing worked out. Toyota Kirloskar Motor Records One Millionth Car Sale in India. This is achieved on 12th March 2014.

But, Pay rises in Japan. Toyota announced its biggest pay rise in 21 years for its Japanese staff. The average Toyota employee will earn 2,700 yen ($26; £15) more each month, a 0.8% increase from the year before.

Contradicting.

 

[anshuman8]

$ 26 ; GBP 15 = INR 1500 pay rise per month (INR 18000 PA) is merely useless under Indian economic scenario in recent times.

 

[generalmax]

This lockout was suppose to come.Toyota have been minting money from Innova sales.They have not invested much into R&D . Dont know the JV status with Kirloskar,definitely lots would have been given as royalty to parent company in Japan.The union leaders may got aware of this thing.Anyway costs are going up.There can be another conspiracy theory here.Where company sponsored the lockout as they have inventory in surplus.

 

[acechip]

Speaking in a really generic sense, there are two problems that we as an Indian society are facing:
1) exploitation of cheap labour at all levels and in all industries -companies are out to make profits amidst competition and MNCs especially want to be more profitable in mass markets like India-why would they be here otherwise
2) Quality of Indian work output is gradually diminishing in general sense. There is a certain casualness, a certain "kya faraq padta hai" attitude that stems from the lowest strata to the top. This hinders efficiency, promotes corruption.
Even in the IT service industry , I see this casualness in work output amongst the junior staff and an almost obssessive and crushing control on "numbers" from the senior staff.

 

[anshuman8]

There is a certain casualness, a certain "kya faraq padta hai" attitude that stems from the lowest strata to the top. This hinders efficiency, promotes corruption.
Even in the IT service industry , I see this casualness in work output amongst the junior staff and an almost obssessive and crushing control on "numbers" from the senior staff.

One of the main reason for this is inflation and cost of living. Any amount you earn starting from labour to senior management is just not enough for their respective lifestyle.
So there is certain sense of casualness which creeps in where you feel you are always paid less than work you do.

 

[Mathew]

Product, Production and Productivity

Platform sharing saves the company money, makes production easier and still gives consumers what they want. Manufacturer gain in platform sharing.

Job Scheduling and Time Management helps the manufacturer to achieve production efficiency. More products in short time. Profit to Manufacturer in such cases.

Productivity through quality of service. Productivity is needed in automobile production line to meet production. Staffs/workers involved in this stage. Manufacturer must consider their staffs to meet this criteria.

Let us consider the quick service. The estimated time for 5000kms quick service is 20minutes with 2 staffs. This process is continuous from morning a staff join to duty till he leaves the days duty except break. The industrial time management is highly optimized, but human may not adjust with that time management. Hence, they shall consider their staffs demand.

Toyota Assembly Line Example - YouTube

 

[350Z]

An official statement has been issued by Toyota Kirloskar:

Today we went to meet the Labour Minister essentially to brief him on the reasons for the lockout and the entire background of the wage issue. The Labour Minster gave us a patient hearing and understood all the facts and figures. The Deputy Labour Commissioner has called for a meeting with TKM management and our representatives are planning to meet him tomorrow. The lock out continues as of today and we are hopeful that an early solution can be found.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[Mathew]

Toyota fails to end deadlock with employees

“The union is demanding an average wage increase of Rs 4,000 per month among other benefits and have been negotiating with the TKM management on the same for the last ten months. The last offer from the management, following the labour department's recommendation, was an average of Rs 3,050.”

The meeting will continue today. The demand and promise are narrowing down. So expecting to have some outcome on coming days.

Read More [Times of India]

 

[Mathew]

Toyota have made final offer on wage hike

"I believe that we have made our final offer. We have given enough explanation, chapter and verse, on why we can't increase our offer. The government and the labour department are fully aware about it," said Shekar Viswanathan, vice chairman, TKM.However, he said, "Some sweetener has been offered but I can't disclose it."

So finally the management listening to workers demand. Good Sign.

[Read More: Times of India]

 

[Mathew]

Toyota India workers down tools despite end to lockout

Employees at Toyota's auto assembly plants in southern India failed to return to work on Monday at the end of a week-long lockout after refusing to sign codes of conduct, their union said.

Although around 500 staff gathered outside the twin plants near Bangalore for the start of their shifts, they did not clock in after managers insisted they sign the agreements, according to a local union chief.

"As we are against giving or signing any undertaking, none of us has entered the factory for the first shift which began at 6:00 am," Prasanna Kumar, president of the Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd Union, told AFP.

Read More [Economic Times]

 

[Mathew]

Toyota's 8-day lockout ends, but employees stay away from work

The 4,200-strong union alleged that its members weren't allowed to enter the factory premises by security guards as they refused to sign an undertaking of good conduct demanded by the management. The union is against signing the undertaking because they feel it would legalize the lockout and it . They allege that the undertaking requires them to agree to the management's reasons cited for the lockout that includes delaying tactics and threatening of supervisors.

Salary related issues sorted out. I think this is just a delay tactics.


Read More [Times of India]

 

[Mathew]

Toyota faces labour unrest in India; are Japanese cos insensitive?

Effective Time managements are adopted in Japan to make maximum operational profit. But, Indian labour is unrest with such time managements.

The below picture taken from Economic Times.


Read More [Economic Times]