GM India, the subsidiary of the American auto giant GM is currently looking towards producing new Light Commercial Vehicles LCVs as they had planned earlier, in the 2012 Q1. This announcement by GM came a day after the worker’s strike of 54 days ended at their Halol plant located in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat.
The company’s Corporate Affairs Vice President, P. Balendran was quoted as saying that their expansion project worth $300mn or Rs. 1,350 crore is projected to be finished by the coming December. This project will increase their production capacity to 1.10 lakh units from the earlier 85,000 units. They expect to roll out their first LCV by the Q1 of 2012.
During the peaceful 42 working day strike, the company lost production of around 2500 units; however their expansion project was not halted. The strike which was perhaps one of the longest in two decades in an industry and labour friendly State, began on March 1 during the second shift, drawing support from many labour unions. The strike ended last Thursday after the employees resumed work following intervention from the State Labour Department. The employees were protesting against the alleged health hazards they were exposed to in the plant.