Hyundai Motor workers reject plan to double workforce

Well, this is not about India, but it's worth reading this report that came in FE today, filed from Seoul by AFP

Unionised workers at a commercial vehicle plant of dispute-plagued Hyundai Motor on Friday rejected a company plan to double the workforce by adding another shift.

Of 678 union members at the auto maker's plant in the southwestern city of Cheonju, 428 voted against a tentative deal reached last month by the company and union leaders.

The rejection frustrated the company's plan to hire some 700 new workers and introduce a night shift in order to double production to an annual 100,000 buses.

"We badly need to increase production to meet rising overseas demand. Export orders are backed up for up to four to six months," Hyundai Motor spokesman Jake Jang said.

A lot of us assume that capitalists are for capitalism, but keener observers have pointed out (and the news reports linked here suggest), they don't want new players to get a chance.

Same with workers unions. Apparently they are for workers' rights, but what they end up doing is to make it difficult for other workers -- by putting pressure on the company they work for as in the case above; or on the government as reflected in the tough labour laws in India. Another example here