CHENNAI - Tamil Nadu’s Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin met representatives of All India Trade Union Central Committee (AITUCC), a trade union affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), here Friday to discuss the labour unrest at automotive component manufacturer Pricol.

“The deputy chief minister listened to us for nearly half an hour on the labour struggle at Pricol and also the arrest of our union’s national president S. Kumarasamy,” the union’s national secretary Bhuvaneswari told IANS.

“We requested him to instruct the police not to harass and arrest workers. We also said the union is open to a judicial enquiry on the labour unrest in Pricol.”

Bhuvaneswari said Stalin has assured that he would contact the union after discussing the issue with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and Labour Minister T.M. Anbarasan.

“We met the labour minister Thursday. He said he would speak to the Coimbatore (district) collector to see that workers are not harassed by the police there,” she added.

According to her, 52 workers have been arrested till date.

Pricol’s vice-president of human resource Roy George had died Sep 22 following an attack on him by some workers the previous day.

Following that, Kumarasamy, a practising advocate and some workers were arrested.

The Rs.633-crore Pricol has been afflicted with labour problems for the past two years.

The issue came to a boil last week when the company dismissed around 42 workers in one of its factories near Coimbatore.

Enraged by the news, a group of workers went on rampage at the company’s plant-one at Perianaickenpalayam, damaging computers, glass panels and other furniture.

Officials who tried to intervene were attacked, and George was hit on the head.

Earlier, promoters of Pricol had met Karunanidhi and Stalin and sought their help in bringing normalcy at the company.