State Electricity Minister Arcot N Veerasamy on Wednesday warned that the Government would take over the tyre company MRF if the government failed to lift the “illegal” lockout.

Replying to a call attention motion moved by AIADMK, Congress, PMK, CPI (M) and CPI, the Minister said Chief Minister would hold talks with the management within a week for a fruitful solution. In the event of the management remaining unrelenting, the government would initiate steps to nationalise the units at Tiruvottiyur in Chennai, he said.

Earlier, Labour Minister T M Anbarasan said the government could not initiate criminal action against the management for violations, as they have obtained a stay in the Madras High Court in this regard.
He said the management declared an indefinite lockout on December 3, 2007. The government issued the GO on December 20 to lift the lockout after the Labour Commissioner declared it as illegal.

Raising the issue, AIADMK legislator D Jayakumar said the management had declared the lockout in rejection of the workers’ legitimate demands, like Rs 2000 should be given as gift for Deepavali and core jobs should not be given to apprentices.

C Gnanasekaran (Cong), D Velmurugan (PMK) and  K Mahendiran (CPI-M) accused the management of not adhering to democratic norms and violating the interim order of the High Court for lifting the lockout.