Workers at Samsung Electronics' factory in Tamil Nadu, India, have ended a month-long strike. About 1,500 workers in Chennai participated in the strike, asking for better pay, improved working conditions, and recognition of a new union they formed. A labour activist supporting the workers mentioned to the BBC that although Samsung has not officially recognised the union, the company has agreed to discuss the other demands.

It was one of the biggest strikes the South Korean tech giant had experienced in a long time. Additionally, it posed a threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to establish India as a competitive manufacturing hub in place of China. On Wednesday, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a national labour union supported by a political party, announced that the workers decided to end their strike after a meeting.

"During the meeting, it was decided that the workers would return to their jobs on Thursday," E Muthukumar told the BBC. He also stated that a court will decide whether to register the new union, known as the Samsung India Labour Welfare Union (SILWU). "We have decided to call off the protest as the Samsung management has decided to engage with workers on all key demands like higher wages, medical insurance and better facilities. So those discussions will continue," he added.

Representatives of the striking employees met with Tamil Nadu labour department officials on Tuesday. The state's Minister for Industries, TRB Rajaa, stated following the meeting that Samsung had promised "not to victimise the workers only for having participated in the strike" and that the striking workers had made the decision to return to work right away. Additionally, he stated that Samsung would submit a written response to the demands made in the charter and that the employees had committed to working in tandem with the management.

Samsung later issued a statement expressing its approval of Citu's decision to end the strike. "We will not take action against workers who merely participated in the illegal strike. We are committed to working closely with our workers to make the Chennai factory a great place to work,” the statement read. The workers started their protest on September 9th in the vicinity of the Chennai city factory, one of its two plants in India and home to almost 2,000 employees. A third of the company's $12 billion (£9 billion) yearly revenue in India comes from the home appliances produced at the factory.

Samsung's recognition of their union was one of the workers' main demands because they claimed that only then would they be able to bargain with management for better pay and working conditions. Multinational corporations that establish factories in India frequently disregard Indian labour laws, which grant workers the right to collective bargaining and association, according to labour rights activist Akriti Bhatia, who spoke to the BBC.

She claimed that these companies frequently avoid this by establishing internal unions, which are merely organised by employees on paper while management retains decision-making authority. They fiercely reject outside unions with political support. The BBC previously heard from a Samsung source who stated that the company "fully supports unions but not ones backed by a third party."

In a one-day strike earlier this year, hundreds of workers at an Apple supplier's Tamil Nadu manufacturing plant demanded union recognition.