Indian police on Tuesday said it had detained around 600 Samsung Electronics workers and union members for staging a street protest as a strike at the South Korean company's home appliances plant in Tamil Nadu state entered its fourth week.
More than 1,000 workers have disrupted operations and protested in a makeshift tent close to the factory near the city of Chennai since Sept. 9. They have demanded higher wages and union recognition at the plant, which accounts for roughly a third of Samsung's annual Indian revenue of $12 billion.
Charles Sam Rajadurai, a senior state police official, said that Samsung employees and workers linked to labor group CITU, which is leading the protest, were detained as their protest march near Chennai inconvenienced the public.
"They are being detained in four wedding halls," he said.
On Sept. 16, police detained 104 striking Samsung workers for almost a day.
The protests cast a shadow over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive for foreign investors to "Make in India" and was India's biggest such strike in recent years. Samsung has said the striking workers risk losing their jobs.
Samsung did not respond to a request for comment. It previously said the average monthly salary of full-time manufacturing workers at the plant is nearly double that of similar workers in the region and that it was open to engaging with workers and resolving the matter.
On average, Samsung workers earn 25,000 rupees ($300) each month and demand a raise of 36,000 rupees a month reached within three years, CITU said.
