Strike: Honda stops bike production

"We had to stop production of motorcycles as almost all the existing manpower and resources are being diverted for scooter production," a senior company official said.

The company sells only one motorcycle model in India, the 150-cc 'Unicorn'. Since its launch last year, the model, which primarily competes with Bajaj's 'Pulsar', received encouraging response from the market.

"The production of 'Unicorn' was stopped on June 27, when production levels were severely hampered due to the ongoing strike," V Sridhar, HMSI general manager (manufacturing) said.

The profitable HMSI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan's two-wheeler major Honda Motor Co., has scooters as its mainstay in India and is credited with reviving the sagging sales of the scooter market.

The strike, due to which the company has suffered losses to the tune of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), has seen production levels going down drastically.

Against the peak production levels of 2,000 scooters per day, there had been a total shutdown a few days ago, and Sridhar claimed that it has limped back to around 750 units daily.

The company employs about 3,500 people in India, which includes about 2,500 'Line Associates', almost all of whom are currently up in arms against the management.

Currently, around 175 line associates have returned to work while the rest are at strike and refusing to resume duty unless their demands are met, including a hike in salary and reinstatement of those suspended.