OUR oWN APOLLO

Apollo Tyres declares lockout in Kalamassery unit
KOCHI: The recession-hit tyre major Apollo Tyres on Saturday declared a lockout in its Kalamassery unit in Kerala, which employs 1,100 people, accusing the trade unions of going on an “illegal'' strike and resorting to negative and non-cooperative attitu de.
A company release said it was forced to take drastic measures to increase efficiency and reduce cost as it had been hit by recession. The workmen had been resorting to “illegal'' stoppage of work and acts of indiscipline, disrupting the normal working o f the plant causing heavy loss of production, it charged.
It alleged that the workmen yesterday indulged in violent acts of obstructing and preventing the loaded trucks from transporting tyres meant for export threatening the drivers and preventing them from moving out. Later, they stopped all work inside the p lant from 6.15 pm and resorted to “sudden illegal strike'', the release said.
Explaining about the causes that led to the current situation, the release said the Kalamassery unit was a high cost centre in terms of cost of production of tyres. To tide over the situation, management had been trying its best to improve and utilise th e machinery to its optimum capacity in sections like curing and extrusion. The management had been requesting for continuous cooperation with unions for the past several months. But the unions have taken a “negative and non-cooperative attitude'' even to giving the agreed output as per the terms of a long term settlement. On December 4, in the curing section, the operators after making seven rounds of output instead of 10 rounds stopped the operation causing loss of tyre production