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For a week, 20,000 employees of the aerospace company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited have stopped their work throughout India to demand salary increases. The city of Bangalore, where the main factories and the headquarters of the public enterprise are located, represents the epicenter of this social movement.
With our correspondent in Bangalore, Como Bastin
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited represents Bangalore's industrial pride but for a week now, the red flags have been deployed in front of its main entrance. The headquarters of the Indian public aviation company is blocked by an indefinite strike.
" Here in Bangalore, there are 10,000 employees, but across India we have 20,000 employees ," said Suryadevara Chandrasekhar, leader of this social movement. The problem is that it has been three years since our wages should have been revised upwards. But our hierarchy refuses to pay us what we should receive .
Rancor related to the Rafale
Officially, this strike concerns only the salaries of Hindustan Aeronautics employees. But by questioning the workers, the rancor related to the business of Rafales, finally attributed to the industrial group Reliance , is still palpable.
" When the previous government signed this contract, it was very clear that Hindustan Aeronautics had to make the Rafales ," explains one of them. We have all the infrastructure and know-how for that. But with the new government, the contract has changed. Here, we survive only through the work on combat aircraft .
Across India, the production of helicopter gunships is interrupted by the strike. While the hierarchy has declared this movement illegal and unjustified, the employees seem determined to prolong the standoff.
► See also: Sale of Rafale: contract signed between France and India