Indian state minister to meet Samsung officials in bid to resolve strike

Tamil Nadu labour minister to meet Samsung officials to resolve strike disrupting consumer electronics plant in India.

The labour minister of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu is set to hold talks on Thursday with officials of Samsung Electronics, in a bid to resolve a strike that has disrupted its consumer electronics plant for four days.

Hundreds of workers at the plant in Sriperumbudur near the industrial city of Chennai have boycotted work to seek higher wages in one of India's biggest incidents of industrial unrest in recent years.

"The government is sincere to resolve (the strike)," the state's Labour Secretary K. Veera Raghava Rao told Reuters by telephone.

He added that the state's Labour Minister C.V. Ganesan and other officials would meet Samsung's leadership in Chennai to find a resolution.

Samsung officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Appliances such as televisions, refrigerators and washing machines are made at the plant, which contributes 20% to 30% of Samsung's annual revenue of $12 billion in India.

The South Asian nation is a key growth market for the South Korean company, the biggest player in India's consumer electronics industry.