Workers of HAL on strike (Photo courtesy PTI) Thousands of workers in India’s state-owned aerospace and defense company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) have been on a strike since 14 October 2019 over various unfulfilled worker demands, including higher wages, in a continuing trend of unrest among employees in state-owned companies across the country. On 22 October the Karnataka High Court directed the workers to call off their strike. At a time when India’s economic growth is not peaking, and its unemployment rate has risen to a near 45-year high, the latest strikes at HAL come as an additional burden on the government. The workers’ protest at HAL began on October 14 as a coordinated and concerted effort at various company’s sites in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Korwa, Koraput, Nashik, Kanpur and Lucknow. The exact number of workers participating in the strikes across cities could not be ascertained, but local media reports have…

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