Case Studies
Case Study 9
A large multinational was having labor problems at a manufacturing plant in India. There had been increasing unrest among its employees and more frequently, impromptu strikes were being called for no apparent reason. Furthermore, senior management at the plant had started to receive personal threats. The official head of the labor union told plant managers that he was unable to control the work force and was not responsible for calling the strikes or making the threats. The plant had several thousand workers and the disruption was costing $2 million a day.
Diligence was called in to help management better understand what was going on, to determine who was responsible and to provide early warning of the agitators' intentions. Former intelligence officers on the Diligence staff started to develop a network of sources within the work force. They quickly determined that the strike instigators were local organized criminals who were trying to take over the union in an attempt to extort money from the workers and to benefit from theft at the plant. They had hoped that by organizing strikes and making threats they would have the current union officials dismissed. Diligence worked with the plant managers, union officials, and local media sources to expose the perpetrators by publicizing their plans in a local newspaper.
Our client was extremely satisfied with the results. The criminals were shunned by their fellow workers and the local police was galvanized to investigate the group. Reportedly, the criminal gang moved out of the area within three months.