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Foxconn India employees gathered outside the company premises on Monday to protest against the management’s decision to quit India.
The Taiwan-based contract manufacturer has announced that it is closing its Chennai plant on December, 24. The device maker said that closure of Nokia plant has forced it to halt its India operations.
Foxconn plant closure will leave 1,700 people without employment. The company management, State Labor department and trade union have already held tripartite meetings over settlement issues. The meetings remain inconclusive and the workers say that they will continue to protest management’s decision.
“We have been told that plant will suspend operations from December 22 instead of December 24. We will not give up. We will go to the plant everyday even if they ask us to go home. If they ask us to leave, we will not hesitate to go for protest,” Foxconn India Employees Union President, E Muthu Kumar told Press Trust of India.
According to the Union, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony also use Foxconn products. Management cannot suspend operations just because Nokia suspended their production”, Kumar added.
Foxconn’s decision to move out of Chennai came as a surprise. On December, 10, the Economic Times had reported that the Taiwan-based company was planning to buy Nokia’s factory and will be investing as much as $2 billion in India operations. Just three days later, Foxconn announced that it is, in fact, shutting down production.
Indian device makers- Micromax as well as Lava- have also reportedly shown interest in buying Nokia’s Chennai assets. The Finland-based company was unable to offload the plant to Microsoft due to its tax tussle with the IT department.
The exit of two major companies in the Nokia SEZ area hasn’t deterred other factories from expanding in the region. Recently, Salcomp- a company that makes mobile phone accessories- has taken the space that was earlier allotted to US-headquartered Laird Technologies.
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