India’s Apollo Tyres has issued a statement concerning the lockout of workers at its Perambra, India, tire plant.

Attributed to Satish Sharma, chief of its India operations, the statement read:

"The lockout in the Perambra plant is a result of the unreasonable stance taken by a small percentage of the workers during the long-term settlement or LTS negotiations. The management initiated LTS discussions in November 2009, much before the expiry of the current settlement. A series of bilateral talks were followed by the intervention of the State Labor Department. Despite our best efforts, the trade unions resorted to an illegal ‘go slow,’ forcing management to take disciplinary action.

“The LTS benefit Apollo Tyres is offering is the best in the state of Kerala, and exceeds the benchmark by more than 10%. Investments have been made to take the Perambra unit’s capacity from the current 308 tons to 340 tons per day. As per discussions held with the trade unions so far, together we have also agreed to recruit more people for the expansion. Apollo has always been one of the outstanding paymasters and employers, running an efficient operation in the state of Kerala.

“We know for a fact that more than 85% of the workers are keen to close this negotiation and return to work. However, they are sadly being held ransom by a small minority. We are working with everyone with an open mind and doing our best to resolve the issue at the earliest possible. The honorable minister of labor in the state, along with the Government of Kerala, is actively engaged in resolving this stalemate. We do hope good sense will prevail.

“Apollo’s total capacity in India is around 1,000 metric tons a day, of which Perambra produces 300 tons. Therefore, this lockout impacts our top line and some of our customers, especially in cross-ply commercial vehicle and farm tires. All efforts are being made to meet the gap through our other plants in India.”