For
several days there has been a an absolute tool down strike at the Shriram
Pistons & Rings’ (SPR) Pathredi (Bhiwadi
district, Alwar) plant in Rajasthan in North India which is threatening to snowball into a major
crisis. According to unconfirmed sources, the workers have shut themselves
inside the plant and are not allowing anyone to get inside or leave the plant.
The management at SPR is trying its level best to carry out a dialogue with the
workers but has not met with any major success.
Sources
maintained that the workers, under the influence of other unions at automotive
factories in and around Rajasthan, are demanding that the management allows it to
form a union which is being resisted by the management. The Pathredi plant is relatively a new plant
of the company. The mother plant is based in Ghaziabad in the state of Uttar
Pradesh, bordering New Delhi.
The
Pathredi plant manufacturers Pistons, Pins, Rings and Engine Valves and has
been in commercial production for about two-and-half years. This is a very
modern plant with people, processes and technology that could easily be
considered a new benchmark for the component industry, Ashok Taneja, CEO and
Managing Director of Shriram Pistons and Rings Ltd had told Motown India some
time back.
The
company has also invested in design and development infrastructure in the
mother Plant at Ghaziabad, to offer end-to-end solutions to OEMs. This includes
ground up product design, FEA, Simulation, Prototyping and Engine Testing. It
recently inaugurated a full-fledged Tech Centre in Ghaziabad.
From a modest beginning in 1972, Shriram
Pistons & Rings Ltd is today one of India's largest integrated
manufacturers of pistons, pins, rings and engine valves. SPR employs 4000+
skilled employees and set up a second, most modern new plant at Pathredi, next
to Bhiwadi Industrial Area (Rajasthan), about 60 kms from Delhi, to expand
capacity and to offer the latest technological products to all customers in
India and abroad.
The company’s Tech Centre was inaugurated on
February 4, 2014, in presence of the Board of Directors. The company’s partners
include Kolbenschmidt (Germany), Riken Corporation (Japan) and Fuji Oozx
(Japan).
Early this year, Taneja had told this
correspondent that his company was planning to repeat double digit growth in
top line and bottom line in 2014-15, and stay ahead of the pack. It is to be
seen how much of that would be affected by the current strike.
File
photo of SPR Pathredi plant/ photography Mohd. Nasir