About 150 striking union members from Bosch’s plant in Bangalore were arrested today (14 October) when they tried to stage a protest in front of chief minister Siddaramaiah’s residence against the government’s decision to prohibit their strike.
The members had gathered with an intention to stage a protest without permission, a police spokesman told Press Trust of India. He added all had been released on bail. Around 1,000 workers had gathered.
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Workers at Bosch’s Adugodi plant have been on an indefinite strike since 16 September, demanding resolution of issues which are long pending.
In a major blow to the workers, the Karnataka government had prohibited the strike with immediate effect last Friday.
“We were there to peacefully make our submission to the chief minister and make him understand that the government’s decision is in favour of management… and government under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 along with prohibiting the strike also has powers to order relief for workers under section 10 (b),” Mico Employees Association president S Prasanna Kumar said.
“We had no intention to stage any protest, but we were arrested and later released on bail,” he added.
After the government’s decision to prohibit the strike, Bosch in a statement on Friday had urged its union to call off the indefinite illegal strike, report to work and restore normalcy.
It had said prior to this declaration, the Labour Commissioner and Additional Labour Commissioner had convened multiple conciliatory meetings between company management and union members with special interventions of several senior government officials and senior ministers, PTI noted.
