Striking ABL Bearings Workers Arrested

For several hours, striking employees of Asian Bearings Ltd. (ABL, India) blocked a main road in Hosur yesterday. Nearly 500 workers were reportedly arrested an detained by police, after negotiations to disperse and allow the road to reopen failed to produce any results. The workers' demands were unclear, although one spokesman said the blockade was intended to draw attention to their plight, and try to get the Indian government to consider taking over and reopening ABL as a government-run company. More than 700 ABL Bearings workers were went on strike in December 2005 after not being paid for several months. The company officially shut down operations in January 2006, citing financial woes leaving it unable to meet payroll or other obligations. Founded in 1982, ABL is a joint venture involving the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCo). The company's plant is located in Belathur, near Hosur, in southern India. Workers are represented by the Asian Bearings Staffs and Employees Union (ABSEU). When it shut down, ABL said it had been producing up to six million bearings per year. Even though ABL produced its own hot-forged rings, the ongoing financial crunch translated to declining vendor shipments of raw materials; in the end, the plant was running at only a very low level of activity to fill some contractual obligations. Management, operating and cash flow troubles plagued ABL almost since its start. With control eventually seized and turned over to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), ABL's various rehabilitation efforts were termed a "failure" more than a decade ago, and it has had a negative net worth for several years. Although admitting it was always at a "competitive disadvantage," and pricing disadvantages versus its competitors, ABL was kept alive through bailouts, loan forgiveness and through several management teams promising overhaul. In regulatory filings, ABL management said problems were caused as, "intense competition in domestic markets and availability of imported bearings at low prices have had a considerable effect on the prices."