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The real story behind the industrial disputein Maruti factory that turned violent
By Rahul Varman21 May 2013
Posted 10-Aug-2012
Vol 3 Issue 32
The Manesar (Haryana) plant of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, a subsidiary of Suzuki
Corporation of Japan and the largest car maker in the country, has been in the news for
almost a year.
And for all the wrong reasons the ongoing labour trouble which finally culminated in
arson, rioting and the horrifying killing of a senior manager on July 18.
40% of the Maruti Manesar workforce are contract
or casual workers with a take-home of around Rs
6,000, and no paid leave (Infochange News &
Features)
The mainstream media is packed with analysis on the causes of the unrest and advice for
Maruti and other companies, but three important points have not received the attention
they deserve.
1. The realities of Japanese management
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The first is the fabled Japanese management. Not too long ago it was assumed that the
Japanese have all the wisdom in manufacturing and management and if only we could
learn from them we would find the answer to our woes.
Business schools worldwide teach special courses on Japanese management and suchofferings are highly subscribed; books on the subject are bestsellers.
But descriptions over the last one year of operations at Manesar demonstrate that
essentially the Japanese trick to success is not so different from the rest: the principle
followed is to get more work out of a worker, while at the same time paying less.
Accounts of Manesar tell of workers being forced to steal rest breaks, docking of pay for
minor infringements, almost no paid holidays, an army of poorly-paid temps etc. Here is
an account of a typical workday at Maruti Manesar (1):
You catch a bus at 5 am for the factory. Arriving a second late to punch in your card
means a pay cut, but you cant leave the premises once youve entered. At 6.30 am, you
exercise and supervisors give you feedback on your previous output. Start work at 7
sharp. Everyone does his one task assembling, welding, fixing for a minimum of 8
continuous hours. A car rolls off the line every 38 seconds, which means you cant
budge from your position, ever. You get two breathless breaks during the day. At 9 am,
a 7-minute break to drink tea or go to the loo, or both. After a while you might, like
many of your friends here, end up taking your hot tea and kachori to the bathroom
with you. Then a lunchbreak of 30 minutes, in which you walk about a half-kilometre to
the canteen, wait in line with everyone, eat and walk back. Returning even a minutelate from any break, or leaving the assembly line for any reason even for a minute,
means half a days pay cut.
Overtime is a compulsion whenever the company needs it and the privilege of paid leave
is a fantasy -- Rs 1,500 is deducted for one days leave (even when you intimate in
advance) from a maximum possible monthly pay of Rs 16,000 and five days leave for any
contingency reduces it to the base salary of Rs 8,000.
Out of a workforce of 2,500, 40% are on contracts, casual or apprentice (but do similar
work as permanents) and their take-home is around Rs 6,000, with the threat ofcomparable deductions as regular workers looming all the time and no job security.
Another worker states,
The problem is the immense pressure. They are extracting the work of 5,000 from half
that number(2)
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And this is not unique to India. Such reports are corroborated by workers in Japan and
Japanese plants in the US. For instance, a leading Japanese journalist worked for several
months on the famed Toyota line in its prime during the 1970s and kept a diary which he
later published as a book. This is how he concludes,
While management journalism may applaud Toyotas high profit and the kanbanmethod the human costs of Toyota methods suicides, injuries, job fatalities, and
occupational disease increase at a horrifying rate... Workers suffer every day in front
of conveyer belts this is the nightmare that I have lived(3)
2. Union as intermediary between workers and management
The basic reason for the ongoing impasse of the last one year and its culmination in the
grisly violence this July is the demand of the young Manesar workers to have their own
representative union.
They did not want the union of the Gurgaon plant -- the parent plant where Maruti began
its operations in the 1980s -- to represent them as they contended it was compromised
and had failed to represent workers interests.
But the management insisted that the Gurgaon union was the true representative of the
Manesar workers. Common sense tells us that each one of us should have the right to
decide who can represent us, either individually or collectively.
The Constitution of India provides the freedom to form association as a fundamental
right and the Trade Union Act also gives a set of workers the right to form their ownunion.
But the Maruti management (and the Haryana government in collusion with them)
systematically denied this basic right to the workers for the past year, rejecting them and
frustrating them in every possible way threats, coercion, force, enticements, etc.
Not only this: after a protracted process which continued for months, when the standoff
was broken last year, the management in its wisdom decided to buy peace (literally) by
dismissing the whole leadership of the agitation while simultaneously giving them hefty
compensations.
According to media reports two top leaders were paid Rs 40 lakh each while 28 of them
got Rs 16 lakh per person. Maruti Chairman Bhargava called this voluntary retirement
by young workers, most in their 20s, at the time!
What are the consequences of such a myopic outlook? When the crisis occurred on the
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morning of July 18 in the form of an altercation between a worker and a supervisor, there
was no structure in place through which a management-worker dispute could be
addressed management had eliminated the whole set of leadership whom the workers
trusted, there was no representative organisation which could have served as go-between
and this kind of vacuum of leadership, organisation and trust set the stage for the
unforgivable violence by the end of the day.
Though there was a new union registered and recognised in February this year,
management had continued to undercut it in the same manner as before. I am not
getting here into which side is more to be blamed for the events of that particular day
all I am saying is that once the mechanisms for a dialogue were systematically
undermined, the preconditions for such an event were ever-present.
3. The elusive spatial fix
The third aspect is the persistent reports that Maruti is likely to move lock, stock andbarrel to the investment haven of Narendra Modis Gujarat. Most revealing are the
comments in the mainstream digital media: click on any news of the labour trouble this
past one year and the comments section is full of unsolicited advice that Maruti should
move from Haryana to Gujarat.
But the moot point is how come suddenly Manesar or Haryana have become unfriendly
for Maruti? Wasnt the hardworking, docile, and non-unionised labour of Haryana a
big consideration when plants were established in Gurgaon in the 1980s and Manesar
five years ago?
The geographer David Harvey calls this unceasing quest to relocate production to a
favourable place an attempt at spatial fix.
But Beverly Silver (4) in a large study of the world auto industry from its inception to the
1990s demonstrates that along with the movement of the centre of auto production the
location of labour unrest also shifts continuously.
The database reveals how the heart of labour unrest in the auto industry moved from
North America in the 1930s and 40s, to Western Europe in the 1960s and 70s, and to
developing countries in Latin America and East Asia in the 1990s.
Silver concludes, where capital goes, conflict goes. Perhaps the point can be more
dramatically demonstrated through the opinion of Britains Blackburn mission of 1896
on Shanghais labour and the threat that it posed for British textiles (5):
Comparing this Oriental labour and our own, there is on the one hand, cheap, plentiful,
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submissive, capable labour (of Shanghai), plus the best machinery we can give it; on the
other hand, dear, dictating and exacting labour (of GB), plus the same machinery. Can
anyone call these equal conditions? Are they not in favour of Shanghai capitalist?
However by the 1920s Shanghai was in the news for the wrong reasons and workers in
the industrial capital of China called a general strike in 1927 when several lakh workersand students fought together and finally the insurrection had to be quelled brutally by
Chiang Kai-sheks army.
There are no quick fixes for Marutis woes like moving to Gujarat or undermining the
efforts of the workers to form their own unions
Industrial relations [edit]
Since its founding in 1983, Maruti Udyog Limited experienced few problems with its labour force.
TheIndian labourit hired readily accepted Japanese work culture and the modern manufacturing
process. In 1997, there was a change in ownership, and Maruti became predominantly government
controlled. Shortly thereafter, conflict between theUnited Front Governmentand Suzuki started. Labour
unrest started under management of Indian central government. In 2000, a major industrial relations issue
began and employees of Maruti went on an indefinite strike, demanding among other things, major
revisions to their wages, incentives and pensions.[20][21]
Employees usedslowdownin October 2000, to press a revision to their incentive-linked pay. In parallel,
after elections and a new central government led byNDA alliance, India pursued a disinvestments policy.
Along with many other government owned companies, the new administration proposed to sell part of its
stake in Maruti Suzuki in a public offering. The worker's union opposed this sell-off plan on the grounds
that the company will lose a major business advantage of being subsidised by the Government, and the
union has better protection while the company remains in control of the government.[20][22]
The standoff between the union and the management continued through 2001. The management refused
union demands citing increased competition and lower margins. The central government prevailed and
privatized Maruti in 2002. Suzuki became the majority owner of Maruti Udyog Limited.[23][24]
Manesar violence July 2012 [edit]
On 18 July 2012, Maruti's Manesar plant was hit by violence as workers at one of its auto factories
attacked supervisors and started a fire that killed a company official and injured 100 managers, including
two Japanese expatriates. The violent mob also injured nine policemen.[25][26]The company's General
Manager of Human Resources had both arms and legs broken by his attackers, unable to leave the
building that was set ablaze, and was charred to death. The incident is the worst-ever for Suzuki since thecompany began operations in India in 1983.[27]
Since April 2012, the Manesar union had demanded a three-fold increase in basic salary, a monthly
conveyance allowance of 10,000, a laundry allowance of 3,000, a gift with every new car launch, and
a house for every worker who wants one or cheaper home loans for those who want to build their own
houses.Initial reports claimed wage dispute and a union spokesman alleged the incident may be caste-
related.[28][29]According to the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union a supervisor had abused and made
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discriminatory comments to a low-caste worker.[30]These claims were denied by the company and the
police.[26]The supervisor alleged was found to belong to a tribal heritage and outside of Hindu caste
system; further, the numerous workers involved in violence were not affiliated with caste either. Maruti
said the unrest began, not over wage discussions, but after the workers' union demanded the
reinstatement of a worker who had been suspended for beating a supervisor.[27]The workers claim harsh
working conditions and extensive hiring of low-paid contract workers which are paid about $126 a month,about half the minimum wage of permanent employees.[30]Maruti employees currently earn allowances in
addition to their base wage.[31]Company executives denied harsh conditions and claim they hired entry-
level workers on contracts and made them permanent as they gained experience. It was also claimed that
bouncers were deployed by the company.[28]
India Todayclaimed[32]that its interviews of witnesses present at the plant confirms the dispute was over
the suspended worker. The management insisted that they must wait for completion of inquiry underway
before they can take any action on the employee suspended for beating up his supervisor. The
management was then told, "you will be beaten up after we get a signal." Thereafter, the workers broke
up into groups, went on to set the shop floor as well as all offices afire. They searched for management
officials and proceeded with a barbaric beating of the officials at the site with iron rods.
The police, in itsFirst Information Report(FIR), claimed on 21 July that Manesar violence may be the
result of a planned violence by a section of workers and union leaders. The report claimed the worker's
action was recorded on close circuit cameras installed within the company premises. The workers took
several managers and high ranked management officials hostage. The responsible Special Investigative
Team official claimed, "some union leaders may be aware of the facts, so they burnt down the main
servers and more than 700 computers." The recordedCCTVfootage has been used to determine the
sequence of events and people involved. Per the FIR, police have arrested 91 people and are searching
for 55 additional accused.[33][34]
Maruti Suzuki in its statement on the unrest,[35]announced that all work at the Manesar plant has been
suspended indefinitely. A Suzuki spokesman said Manesar violence won't affect the auto maker'sbusiness plans for India.[27]The shut down of Manesar plant is leading to a loss of about Rs 75
crore[36]per day.[37]On 21 July 2012, citing safety concerns, the company announced alockoutunderThe
Industrial Disputes Act, 1947pending results of an inquiry the company has requested of the Haryana
governmentinto the causes of the disorder. Under the provisions of The Industrial Disputes Act for
wages, the report claimed, employees are expected to be paid for the duration of the lockout.[36]On 26
July 2012, Maruti announced employees would not be paid for the period of lock-out in accordance
withIndian labour laws. The company further announced that it will stop using contract workers by March
2013. The report claimed the salary difference between contract workers and permanent workers has
been much smaller than initial media reports - the contract worker at Maruti received about 11,500 per
month, while a permanent worker received about 12,500 a month at start, which increased in three
years to 21,000-22,000 per month.[38]In a separate report, a contractor who was providing contract
employees to Maruti claimed the company gave its contract employees the best wage, allowances and
benefits package in the region.[39]
Shinzo Nakanishi, managing director and chief executive of Maruti Suzuki India, said this kind of violence
has never happened in Suzuki Motor Corp's entire global operations spread across Hungary, Indonesia,
Spain, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, China and the Philippines. Mr. Nakanishi went to each victim
apologising for the miseries inflicted on them by fellow workers, and in press interview requested the
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central and Haryana state governments to help stop such ghastly violence by legislating decisive rules to
restore corporate confidence amid emergence of this new 'militant workforce' in Indian factories. He
announced, "we are going to de-recognise Maruti Suzuki Workers Union and dismiss all workers named
in connection with the incident. We will not compromise at all in such instances of barbaric, unprovoked
violence." He also announced Maruti plans to continue manufacturing in Manesar, thatGujaratwas an
expansion opportunity and not an alternative to Manesar.[40][41]
Labour disputes are endemic in the auto industry of India and have affected other manufacturers. India
has strictlabour laws, but their application is widely sidestepped by hiring low-wage contract
workers.[30]Manesar violence adds to India's recent incidents of labour disputes turning to violence.
Analysts claim[42][43]recent incidents like Manesar violence suggest a need for urgent reform of archaic
Indian labour laws, the rigid rules on hiring and layoffs, which harm theformal sectorand
discourageinvestment in India. Government mandated procedures for labour dispute resolution are
currently very slow, with tens of thousands of cases pending for years. The government of India is being
asked to recognise that incidents such asManesarviolence indicate a structural sickness which must be
solved nationally.
The company dismissed 500 workers accused of causing the violence and re-opened the plant on 21
August, saying it would produce 150 vehicles on the first day, less than 10% of its capacity. Analysts said
that the shutdown was costing the company 1 billion rupees ($18 million) a day and costing the company
market share.
The previous week company officials had announced that Maruti would scrap the practice of hiring
contract workers and that the workers currently on temporary contracts would be made permanent. It
would begin the process of hiring new workers on a permanent basis from 2 September 2012 .[44]
This report appeared onGurgaon Workers News
1. Balance Sheet
2. The Factory
3. The Working Conditions
4. The Chronology of the Strike
5. No Conclusion
*********
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-40http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-40http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-40http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_in_India#Labour_laws_in_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_in_India#Labour_laws_in_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_in_India#Labour_laws_in_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-HP72112-30http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-HP72112-30http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-HP72112-30http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-42http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-42http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_in_India#Labour_structure_in_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_in_India#Labour_structure_in_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_in_India#Labour_structure_in_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India#Foreign_direct_investmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India#Foreign_direct_investmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India#Foreign_direct_investmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manesarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manesarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manesarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-44http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-44http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-44http://gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/gurgaonworkersnews-no-41-july-2011-balance-sheet-of-maruti-suzuki-workers-strike/http://gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/gurgaonworkersnews-no-41-july-2011-balance-sheet-of-maruti-suzuki-workers-strike/http://gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/gurgaonworkersnews-no-41-july-2011-balance-sheet-of-maruti-suzuki-workers-strike/http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#1http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#1http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#2http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#2http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#3http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#3http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#4http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#4http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#5http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#5http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#5http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#4http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#3http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#2http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3887/#1http://gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/gurgaonworkersnews-no-41-july-2011-balance-sheet-of-maruti-suzuki-workers-strike/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-44http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manesarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India#Foreign_direct_investmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_in_India#Labour_structure_in_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-42http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-42http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-HP72112-30http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_in_India#Labour_laws_in_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-40http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_Suzuki#cite_note-40http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarat7/30/2019 The Real Story Behind the Industrial Dispute in Maruti Factory That Turned Violent
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1. Preliminary Balance Sheet of the 13-Days Sit-Down Strike at Maruti Suzuki
Factory in Manesar/Gurgaon, India
From 4th to 17th of June 2011 around 2,000 young workers engaged in a wildcat sit-down
strike at Maruti Suzuki factory in Manesar [1]. With the following text we hope to contribute
to the necessary debate about this important strike and invite friends and comrades,particularly in Delhi area, to share their experiences and views. Before we go into
chronological details of the strike we try to provide a rough political summary.
It was an important strike in local terms. The two Maruti assembly plants coordinate
hundreds of local supplying factories [2], the Manesar plant dominates a new industrial area
of major importance. There has been silence at Maruti Suzuki for more than a decade: the
workers in Gurgaon plant have been silenced by the lock-out in 2000/01 [3], and they did
not join the strike in June. The Manesar plant was opened in 2006/07, but the young and
casualised work-force had not found their voice as yet.
It was a hard strike. The workers gave no notice to management, they stopped production
completely and around 2,000 workers stayed inside the factory for nearly two weeks. The
strike postponed the production of 13,200 cars and caused a loss of about 6 billion Rs.
(133 million USD / 100 million Euro). Maruti Suzukis June sales figures dropped by 23 per
cent, the sharpest fall in two and a half years. In July management announced to shift one
production-line back from Manesar to Gurgaon plant. Workers continued the strike despite
the police stationed within the factory premises and despite strike having been officially
declared illegal by Haryana government on 10th of June.
Management and state did not dare to attack the workers inside the factory a lot of
workers struggles in the area had been attacked physically once workers left the factory.
This is partly due to the managements fear that plant and machinery could be damaged
during the course of a police intervention, but mainly due to a fear of the state that in the
current local and global social situation repression could cause unpredictable trigger
effects. While state and management did not know how to deal with the situation, the main
unions repeatedly emphasised, that the workers are victimised, that the workers, and notthe company, are in a difficult spot.
Despite the young workers courage and the fact that the company was hit at times of full-
capacity the strike ended in a defeat for the mass of workers: they did not enforce any
betterment of conditions and wages, which was their main concern. Instead the agreement
included a punishment wage cut of two days wages per day of strike something rarely
seen in industrial relations in India. Another element of the agreement states that the 11
workers (union leaders) sacked during the strike were taken back, though they have to
undergo an inquiry. We are not able to say whether workers at large felt demoralised after
the strike, but we can imagine it.
The strike could have spread. The initial demands and underlying motivations of the Maruti
workers matched the atmosphere of the young work-force in the area: more money, lesswork. In Manesar more than a hundred thousand young workers have similar concerns [4].
The strike stopped production at around 200 local supplying factories, but no active
connections were established between Maruti workers and the wider work-force in the
territory. This might be one of the main differences to the Honda strike in China last
summer and main reason for the fact that the strike was very underrepresented in both
mainstream and left-wing global media despite the emerging position of Maruti Suzuki
and India in the global market.
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The focus on formal representation choked the dynamic of the strike. During the course of
the strike, the direct demands of the workers were reduced to the question of which union-
flag should be put up at the gate. We could summarise the main reasons for the defeat of
the strike as follows: workers raised direct demands, but early on these demands were
integrated in the workers hope that by formal recognition of an independent union their
material situation would improve; we then saw an attack both by management and state,cutting of electricity, isolation of workers by army of security guards, declaring the strike
formerly illegal and last but not least by sacking the 11 leaders; the main unions then
offered support and at the same time focussed the struggle on the question of taking back
the leaders and workers rights for representation. Workers did not manage neither to
break out of the material encirclement set-up by company management and state nor to
escape the embrace by the main unions.
The fate of the strike was handed over to the negotiating forces. It is nave to repeat the
phrase of betrayal of the main unions. It evades the question of what gives them the
power to betray in the first place. Instead we should focus on the question how workers can
struggle in a way, which leads both to an immediate material gain and to political
experience of self-organisation and generalisation beyond the company walls the latter
becoming increasingly a precondition for the former.
Friends translated parts of this text into Taiwanese/Chinese:
http://emblack.wordpress.com/2011/07/13//
[1]
A short video documentary can be found here soon(with English and German subtitles):
Video
[2]
Short articles and reports from the local supply-chain:
GurgaonWorkersNews no.33
GurgaonWorkersNews no.35
GurgaonWorkersNews no.36
[3]Material on re-structuring at Maruti Suzuki Gurgaon plant:
GurgaonWorkersNews no.5
[4]
Paper on Potential for Wage Struggle Offensive in Gurgaon-Manesar:
GurgaonWorkersNews no.37
*******
2. The Factory
The factory was opened in 2006/2007, some of the production lines were moved from
Maruti Suzukis main plant in Gurgaon, which is situated in about 20 km distance from
Manesar. The Manesar plant manufactures different models from the Gurgaon plant; thereis little integration or dependency in terms of production process between these two
factories. The factories source parts from similar suppliers, but the larger suppliers have
built separate units for the new plant, e.g. Ricos main plant supplies 90 per cent to the old
Gurgaon plant, only 10 per cent to Manesar. The factory employs around 3,500 to 4,000
workers and churns out 1,200 cars a day. The assembly lines run on two shifts, the rest of
the plant (weld-shop, body-shop) runs 24 hours. The production volume has been increased
by about 200 cars a day during the last two years. The strike hit Maruti Suzuki in a relative
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boom-period, some weeks before the conflict in Manesar, Maruti Suzuki announced to open
an additional plant, probably in Gujarat a location closer to the export harbours.
Maruti Suzuki is a dominating company in the region and closely related to the political
machinery. This is mainly because of the industrial dependency of hundreds of smaller
production units, reaching down to slum production and small work-shops, partly because
the state still holds shares in Maruti Suzuki and partly because Haryana state sources a fair
chunk of tax revenue from Maruti Suzuki. In 2010 the company paid around 13 billion Rs
tax to the regional state.
Workers in the Manesar plant are younger than in the Gurgaon plant, and their wages a
much lower, their contracts more casual. Most of the workers at Gurgaon are in their
forties. They have family responsibilities and are scared of the management. They have
become accustomed to the managements unjust ways and abusive behaviour. They will
never raise their voice against injustice but we will, said a 25-year-old who claimed to be a
worker at the Manesar plant. The youth, who did not want to be named, said he had slipped
out to get food for the other strikers and organise support for the protest from outside. The
Gurgaon plant has 7,000 employees and the average worker is in his mid-forties. The
employees at the Gurgaon plant are older. They have grown with the company and know
the benefits of working under discipline. Manesar is a young factory with mostly young
employees and I think there is an absence of a calming and more mature influence, Maruti
Suzuki chairperson R.C. Bhargava said. (Telegraph India, 12th of June)
In the Gurgaon plant the salary of skilled workers adds to 30,000 40,000 Rs including the
overtime and incentives, whereas the skilled labourers at Manesar get only around 13,000
to 17,000 Rs. After the lock-out at the Gurgaon plant in 2000/01 around 2,500 permanent
workers were replaced by temporary workers. Unfortunately we have little insights how
these workers in Gurgaon saw and debated the strike of their casualised work-mates inManesar.
The factory itself is situated at the fringe of a huge industrial area, location for around 500
manufacturing units, partly garment factories, but dominated by automobile suppliers and
the Honda motorbike and scooter plant see satellite picture. The workers themselves live
in four five villages close to the industrial area. Some of them mainly permanent
workers live further away and arrive in company buses they have to pay 600 Rs per
month for the company transport.
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Maruti Suzuki had hoped to de-risk their production by relocating the new production lines
to a fair distance from the old troubled plant in Gurgaon, with a fresh workforce. The
following quote from an article, published a couple of months before the strike,
demonstrates nicely how fragile the seemingly harmonious production relations in modern
capitalism are:
Workers inputs help Maruti save Rs 160 crore at its Manesarplant
At a time when frequent labour unrests are plaguing the Indian auto industry, car maker
Maruti Suzuki was able to save about Rs 160 crore in 2010-11 by implementing suggestions
given by workers at its Manesar plant. We encourage our people to give their inputs that
could increase efficiency and save money, said S Y Siddiqui, managing executive officer
(administration) of Maruti Suzuki. The company had received about 2.29 lakh suggestions
last fiscal compared to about 129,000 suggestions in the previous fiscal, he added. This is in
sharp contrast to the companys past when strike by its workers crippled productions for
three months from November 2000 to January 2001. Since then the company has had a
stable relationship with its workers. When the carmakers sales crossed one million in 2009-
10, the company celebrated the milestone by gifting a gold coin to each of over 8,600
employees. (Times of India, 8th of April 2011)
3. The Working Conditions
There are around 3,500 to 4,000 workers employed in the factory, but their status differs
significantly. Around 900 to 1,300 workers are permanent workers, around 800 to 1,000
trainees, around 400 apprentices and around 1,000 to 1,200 temporary workers hired
through contractors. In general, initially workers are hired as apprentice (generally after
completing ITI course technical college), then taken as temporary workers, and then
promoted as trainee, and finally, but not necessarily they reach to the stage when they can
get status of regular workers. Generally they are kept blocked at the stage of temporary
workers and as trainees. In this way Maruti Suzuki more or less matches the general
conditions in Gurgaon and Manesar, where around 70 to 80 per cent of the work-force istemporary.
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Wages differ according to contractual status. Permanent workers are paid between 13,000
and 17,000 Rs, trainees get between 8,000 and 10,000 Rs, temporary workers are paid
around 6,500 Rs and apprentices around 3,000 Rs to 4,200 Rs. Compared to the automobile
industry in the global North wages at Maruti Suzuki are obviously low. Having said this, the
relative wage of a permanent worker at the Gurgaon plant (around 30,000 Rs / 500 Euro /
660 USD) will be higher than the wage of a temporary worker in car plants in Germany orFrance. Permanent workers at Manesar compared their wages to the wages of permanent
workers at nearby Honda, Hero Honda or Maruti Gurgaon plant and voiced anger about the
fact that they earn only half as much.
We also want to earn more and live in a big house, said Vinkendra Sharma, a protesting
worker at the Manesar plant. Sharma, employed as a worker on the factor floor is originally
from Panna district of Madhya Pradesh and earns Rs. 16,000 per month. According to him,
not only does he have to contend with increasingly expensive food and lodging expenses,
but has also to send money to his family. Ashok Kumar, another agitating worker, believes
that formation of an independent union can take care of their rights and provide them a
better living standard that is missing so far. We cannot go to the washroom during any
other time, and in case we do, we have to give an unconditional apology letter, Manish
Kumar said, a claim that was echoed by other workers. We are giving our best to the
company, but what are we getting in turn? The production capacity of Maruti has gone up
from 10 lakh units in 2009-10 to 12.7 lakh units in 2010-11, but our salary has not gone up
at all. Where is the incentive for hard work? asked Ashok Kumar. Sandip Kumar, a 20-
year-oldcontract labourer at the Manesar plant, said: Our colleagues who worked at
Suzukis plant in Japan told us that they get at least Rs. 40,000 for what we are doing.
According to 29-year old Rajesh (name changed on request) who has worked for three
years with Maruti, the companys compensation package for workers is flawed. His basic
salary is Rs 4,000 and he gets an additional Rs 9,000 every month for attendance and
production. Dharminder, one such contract labourer, has worked with Maruti for two years,
attaching bumpers and other accessories on car faces. His Rs 6,400-a-month salary, he
claims, has not improved. (Livemint, 13th of June 2011)
It is not only that wages are comparably low, they also come with fairly strict conditions
attached. The basic salary for permanent workers and temporary workers is the minimum
wage of around 5,000 Rs, the rest of the wage are incentives. If a worker is few minutes
late, then his half day salary is cut. If a worker takes one day leave, he looses about 1,500
Rs to 2,000 Rs as salary cut in various forms of incentives and allowances. If a worker takes
two day leave, he almost looses all the incentives. The fact that the company sees itself
compelled to give two thirds of the wage incentives hints at a disciplinary problem.
Explaining the rationale, a Maruti official said that every unplanned leave by a worker, it
costs the company heavily. Each worker has been given a specific role in the production
and supply chain. If they do not inform the supervisor well in advance, then production getshampered severely, he said. Most of the workers come from far away regions, they need
extra-holiday to see family and friends back home.
Nikhilesh Pandey, 25, a former worker at the Manesar plant who was at the factory gate to
deliver lunch to his striking cousin, agreed that Maruti paid better than the others. But we
are not donkeys. We cannot work like slaves, he said, adding that he worked at the factory
for two years but quit when he was refused leave to attend to urgent business back home in
Uttar Pradesh. The problem is the immense pressure. They are extracting the work of
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5,000 from half that number, Pandey said. This means fewer breaks during shifts and no
leave. (Telegraph, 12th of June)
Work at Maruti Suzuki is hard, which also pushes workers into taking leave. According to
workers, the most serious problem is the intensity of work and the brutality of the way it is
imposed on the workers. We get a lunch break of exactly 30 minutes and a tea break of 5minutes. The canteen is 400 meters away from the workplace. In those thirty minutes, we
have to remove our safety clothes and goggles, run to the canteen, stand in so many
different lines to pick up food, gulp down the food, go to the toilet, run back, put the
goggles and safety clothes on again, and resume work. The lines are long because all the
workers have break at the same time. If we are even one minute late, Rs 1000-1500 is
deducted from our salary. Imagine that in the 5 minute tea break, we are supposed to have
tea and snacks and restart work. There is no break allowed for visiting the toilet at any
time. If a reliever does not come, a worker is forced to work a 16-hours shifts. Those
workers who refuse to do over time are abused and insulted. (InterviewMazdoor Ekta
Lahar)
These conditions form the background of the strike, they form the background of the
general situation of workers in Gurgaon and beyond.
4. Development of the Strike
The company knew that trouble was brewing, they knew that some workers planned on
registering a separate union and the company had already prepared legal documents for a
possible expulsion of workers from the premises. The strike happened one month before
union elections at Maruti Suzuki. So far Maruti Suzuki management tried to back a single
union, the Maruti Suzuki Kamgar Union, for both Gurgaon and Manesar plant. This union
had been set-up by forces close to management after the lock-out at Gurgaon plant in
2000/2001. Workers in Manesar did not feel represented by this union, they did not feel
that their grievances were addressed by the union. The actual outbreak of the strike, and
the fact that both permanent workers as the potential members of the new union andcasual temporary workers took part, will have surprised the management. But why didnt
these workers raise these issues and discuss (them) with us? They have never raised any of
these issues at any formal level with the management, Maruti Suzuki chairperson Bhargava
said. It remains a mystery to me why theydidnt start a dialogue or a discussion or even
(send) a letter detailing their demands. (Telegraph, 12th of June)
On 3rd of June, eleven leaders of the workers went to Chandigarh to meet the Labour
Department to complete the formalities regarding registration of our union on June 3, 2011.
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On the morning of that day, the labour department officials faxed the news of our
application to the management. Immediately, the management started pressuring workers
inside the factory to prevent them from joining the new Union. They began forcing workers
to sign blank papers. Senior officials of another Maruti Suzuki plant also joined in this
activity. As soon as the leadership of our union came to know of this activity, we mobilized
workers against it. On the morning of June 4, 2011, through struggle, we were able toretrieve some of the blank signed papers from the management. By the afternoon, it
became clear that the management was using all kind of tricks to break our unity. In such
circumstances, we were forced to go on flash tool down strike from the afternoon of June 4,
2011. (Interview with Maruti Suzuki union leader, www.cgpi.org)
On the 4th of June after the change between morning and late shift around 2,000 workers
stop work and remain in factory. Later on, the C-shift would not be refused entry by
management and these workers largely remained outside the factory. All the workers of the
company joint the struggle permanent, casual, as well as apprentices. As I was told by a
young worker how the workers tied a white hanky around their faces so that the
trainee/apprentice workers, casual and contract workers could not be distinguished by the
management (the Maruti chairman R.C.Bhargava is seen in the news channels to lament
how there is no visible leadership whom they could talk to). The police are still inside,
having occupied the canteen, and increasingly bouncers are also there. The inside-outside
workers correspondence doesnt seem to be going towards anything more substantial than
food/mobile battery exchange. (4th of June, Report by a friend).
During this initial stage, workers raised various issues and demands: low wages, incentive
cuts, few breaks. The workers have demanded that the temporary workers should be given
preference for permanent posts in new departments, which the company is currently
building on the premises. In a first reaction management said that workers should give up
the strike and make use of the upcoming union elections: The Maruti union will hold
elections next month. I am sure they can show their strength there. They can air their
grievances there, he [Maruti Suzuki chairman] said. (Business Standard, 6th of June 2011)
At the same time management undertook steps to threaten and isolate the striking workerswithin the factory premises.
On 5th and 6th of June management sealed the gates and placed a row of security guards
in front of them in order to prevent exchange between workers inside and outside, between
workers and supporters and media. One of the demands of the workers visible on the self-
made placards was to be allowed to speak to the media. Management also restricted water,
food, electricity and toilet access. Only after a demonstration outside the gate on 6th of
June, the food supply through family and friends was permitted again. Eleven workers were
officially dismissed on the 6th of June. Police was deployed both inside and outside the
premises, they removed some tents, which supporters had put up, but largely remained
looming in the background. Workers also complained that management would call their
relatives back at home and ask them to convince their unruly sons and nephews to goback to work.
On the 8th of June the main unions AITUC, CITU, HMS, INTUC, UTUC formed a joint action
committee to support the strike. Although this committee dominated by AITUC had no
formal link with neither the Maruti workers nor the new Maruti union in formation, it became
the main broker and spokesperson of the strike. Often quoted representatives were union
leaders from Honda HMSI, Hero Honda Dharuhera and Rico Auto. On the 9th of June this
action committee mobilised workers of 50 to 60 factories in Gurgaon, around 1,000 to
2,000 union members gathered in front of the gates. Sachdeva, secretary, AITUC, said, As
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we are a major union in this area, its our prime responsibility to support any cause that
involves the rights of our affiliated workers. We are observing a days satyagraha at the
entrance of Marutis Manesar plant. If the management doesnt accept our demands today,
the workers of other neighbouring plants will go on a days strike. We are calling for the
termination of the 11 workers to be revoked. The workforce says it will only start production
when the 11 are taken back and given assurances they [management] will not interfere inthe union. (Business Standard, 10th of June 2011) From then on no other demands and
concerns of the workers were mentioned.
Q: What are the other conditions that you have asked the management to agree with and
what conditions has the management agreed to comply with?
A: There is just one agreement. All the 11 workers should be taken back.
Q: Is that the only demand?
A: At the moment.
(Interview with Gurudas Dasgupta, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) General
Secretary, CNBC, 16th of June 2011)
On 10th of June the over-all pressure on the striking workers increased and pushed them
further into the arms of the main unions. The Haryana government has, under the
provisions of the Industrial Depute Act, 1947, referred the matter of ongoing strike in Maruti
Suzuki Udyog Ltd, Manesar, by the workers to the competent labour court and has also
passed the orders prohibiting the continuance of the strike in the industrial unit, Minister of
State for Labour and Employment Shiv Charan Lal Sharma said in a statement. The strike
was officially called illegal.
Two truckloads additional police arrived on the factory premises. Though the Gurgaon
district magistrate said deployment of additional forces inside the 600-acre premises was
just a precautionary measure, sources informed that striking workers could be booted out of
the factory with the use of police force. We have a court order that allows us to evict these
workers from the factory citing protection of the equipment, said RC Bhargava, chairman,
MSIL, adding police were there only as a precautionary measure. Ravinder Kulharia, a
striking worker, said workers feared for their lives. We do not understand as to why theadministration has moved such a large number of police personnel when we have been on
peaceful strike from the beginning, he said. (Hindustan Times, 10th of June 2011)
Workers probably knew beforehand that the strike was illegal and it is unlikely that the
state would have used police-force to expel 2,000 workers from a modern car plant in one
of the main industrial areas in the current situation. Nevertheless, the pressure on workers
increased and around 250 workers decided to leave the occupation on 10th of June. I fell
sick. I was relieved at 3am as there was no medicine in the factorys dispensary, said one
of the workers who has left the factory. There is only one toilet open for 2,500 workers.
The rest have been locked. At that point the unions kept on repeating that the workers are
in trouble, although actually it looked like management and state were not sure what to do
about the situation.The strike started to kick in and to build up pressure. Maruti management repeatedly
reassured the market that car dealers have 20 to 28 days stock and that the loss of 6,000
cars can be made up for. More importantly the impact of the strike was felt down the
supply-chain. Due to lack of storage space around 200 to 250 of the suppliers, most of them
located in the proximity of the plant, had to reduce or stop production. To add pressure on
workers Maruti management announced that the company would go ahead with a closure
of the plant for the annual maintenance work from 20th to 25th of June 2011.
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On 12th of June Maruti Suzuki management offered to take back 5 of the 11 sacked
workers, but the union refuses. The management has agreed to reinstate five of the 11
sacked workers. However, we want all the employees to be taken back. Besides, the
company has to give us an assurance in writing of not taking any disciplinary action, said
Shiv Kumar, a sacked technician. Kumar has been nominated as the general secretary of
the new union.The main unions announce a two-hour solidarity strike for the 14th of June 2011. We will
be distributing pamphlets across the Gurgaon and Manesar factories. The two-hour tool-
down from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. will serve as a warning. If the issues are not resolved, then on
Wednesday the unions will hold another meeting to decide on the date for the one-day
strike, Suresh Gaur, president of the Honda HMSI union said. Meanwhile AITUC general
secretary Gurudas Dasgupta held talks with Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The workers morale is high; this unity is unprecedented; all trade unions of Gurgaon have
rallied round the striking workers. After talking to the Chief Minister, I am hopeful of a
positive outcome, Mr. Dasgupta said. (The Hindu, 12th of June 2011)
While Dasgupta negotiated with the Chief Minister and asked the Prime Minister to intervene
his colleague Sachdeva, secretary of AITUC announced that AITUC will ask the Maruti
Suzuki workers to work overtime once the dispute is settled: We want it [the dispute] to be
resolved. Even the workers are anxious to restart the production. Hopefully, some solution
will be found. We want the workers should resume production, normalcy should prevail and
we will persuade the workers to make up for this loss of production by working extra hours
or on holidays. AITUC wants industrial development to take place in Haryana. We are not
against FDI investments but we feel these multinational corporations should respect our
national laws, and should allow workers to form their own union. (CNBC, 13th of June
2011)
On the 13th of June the company management announces that it would accept a separate
union for the Manesar plant, but under the umbrella of company council, which would be
responsible for wage revisions and other general issues. S Y Siddiqui, the head of human
resources, said: We are ready to be flexible on their demand for a plant-level union.However, it has to comprise only those working at the plant. It cannot have outsiders. That
is how Maruti has been run for 27 years. The proposed constitution of the new union allows
one-third members from outside.
On 14th of June AITUC secretary Sachdev first announced that the two-hours solidarity
strike is on, only to proclaim that it is called off. The tool-down strike has started and about
60 65 factories workers are taking part in it. If in a day or two, no solution comes out,
then workers will go on for a full-day strike, AITUC secretary D L Sachdev said. (Times of
India, 14th of June 2011) The two-hour strike has been called-off for today on the appeal
of the Chief Minister and the Labour Commissioner. They sought a days time to resolve the
issue. Consequently, the strike has been postponed for 24 hours, AITUC Secretary D L
Sachdev. (Press Trust of India, 14th of June 2011)On the 16th of June Maruti management told the media that it would try to revive
production lines in the Gurgaon plant in case the strike dragged on for longer
unnecessarily so, because a day later, on 17th of June, the dispute was settled. The workers
were represented by leader of the proposed new union Maruti Suzuki Employees Union Shiv
Kumar and national secretary of AITUC Sachdev. The company has now agreed that we
would not be asked to sign the paper. Also, the fact that Maruti took back the 11 workers
shows that our demands were met, said Shiv Kumar.
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Actually the eleven workers have to undergo an inquiry before they are taken back. The
other main outcome of this victory is that workers lose only two days wage per each day
of strike, instead of eight days, which would be legally possible under no work no pay-
rule. This kind of official punishment for going on strike inscribed in the agreement is a
rather new development. Maruti management might penalise workers with payment of an
additional days wage per strike day if workers show any signs of indiscipline over the nexttwo months. The plant will remain closed on Friday, the 17th of June, as a rest day for
both workers and management and, instead, will function on Sunday. A puja [religious
ceremony] has been called at 12 pm tomorrow as a symbolic way of starting things afresh,
the administration official said. There was no mention of the second union in the
agreement signed yesterday, simply because the workers at the Manesar plant do not
require the managements permission to form a new union. Gurudas Dasgupta, general
secretary, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC). (Business Standard, 17th of June 2011)
The national secretary Sachdev concluded: There has been massive loss of production and
the workers are aware of this. Hence they are willing to work overtime and make up as
much as possible for the loss in production.
After they had digested the shock of the strike, Suzuki management tried to play down its
impact. In a market where we sell 1.2 million vehicles a year, 16,000 vehicles was a
matter of inventory adjustment, CEO Osamu Suzuki said. (23rd of June, Deccan Herald).
Actually June sales figures did not look too good, the highest decline of monthly sales in two
and a half years. While pretending that they are not bothered, their deeds speak differently.
On 6th of July 2011 Maruti Suzuki management announced to shift the production of the
Swift DZire from Manesar plant back to Gurgaon plant, were it was initially manufactured.
At the same time the extension of production capacities in Manesar are supposed to
continue
5. No Conclusion
We cannot draw any useful conclusions unless we have more insights about what workers
experiences were during the strike and what they think and debate about the strike in
hindsight. This will require more time and longer conversations.
Majdoor Bigul is one of the political groups which supported the striking workers and whose
activists were physically attacked by company paid goons while speaking to workers in the
surrounding villages. They concluded: The Management and the Haryana govt. managed to
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coerce the workers leaders for an abject surrender in a deal brokered by the central trade
unions. (http://workersresist.net/?p=33)
We dont think that betrayal of trade union leadership is a satisfying explanation for
defeats of workers struggles. It does not explain why workers, who were willing to take on
the hardship and risk of two weeks factory occupation, would accept an agreement
brokered by some external self-proclaimed leaders or AITUC bigwigs if they are not happywith it. As far as we are aware of the workers did not develop an organised structure of
collective decision-making during the occupation, which would have prevented a betrayal.
They relied on their leadership and their middlemen function. A temporary worker who
friends met after the strike told us that a lot of workers were not aware of the union
involvement and negotiations. The Maruti union leadership was threatened with dismissal,
for them the agreement the chance to get their job back was a victory.
The accusation of betrayal also implies a certain illusion concerning the character of trade
unions. We have decided to call a one-day strike to protest against the indecisive Maruti
management, Bhagwan Malik, HMSI Employees Unions secretary said. We will give them
some time before taking a final call on the issue. If Maruti Suzuki fails to act on workers
demands, we will resort to a strike at our plants in coming days, Raj Kumar, president of
Rico Autos workers union at the Daruhera plant, near Manesar said. We will extend all
support to Maruti employees and may go on strike to express our solidarity. If required, we
will come to a common location and protest for joint demands, Kamal Sharma, Employees
Union president at Hero Hondas Daruhera plant, said.
If we have a look at how some of the main supporting unions have developed as
representative legal bodies of the permanent work-force we can see that their behaviour
during the Maruti strike was not treacherous, but business as usual. At Rico Auto,
unionised permanent workers earn up to six times as much their temporary work-mates and
the wage division has increased since establishment of the union [5]. The union at Hero
Honda declined membership to temporary workers and did not support the 1,500 locked-out
temporary workers during the 2008 dispute [6]. Since the establishment of the union at
Honda HMSI the material division between permanent and temporary workers hasincreased. We quote from an earlier article:
Just to give the example of the union at Honda HMSI in Gurgaon. No one will deny the
genuine character of the union, it has been fought for with blood, it has not been
established as a company union, no one will approach them with betrayal. Since it has been
recognised in 2005, wages of the permanent workers the union members have
quadrupled: before May 2005 permanent workers used to get around 6,900 Rs, current
wages are around 30,000 Rs plus, including incentives and bonuses. At the same time
permanent workers have become a minority in the plant. In 2005 there were 1,200
permanent, 1,600 trainees, 1,000 workers hired through contractors and 400 apprentices.
Today there are 1,800 permanent workers and 6,500 workers hired through contractors in
production departments, plus around 1,500 workers hired through contractors for cleaning,canteen, driving etc.. The temporary workers in production get around 6,800 Rs per month,
less than a quarter of their permanent work-mates. The permanent workers have retained
mainly supervisory positions. As part of the union-management wage agreements the
permanent workers wages contain a large share of productivity bonus. The company wants
to make them benefit from the increased work load which has been imposed on the
shoulders of the temporary work-force. The actual material power of the union has
decreased, they compensate the decline by making themselves important managers of the
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wage hierarchy not as one act of sell out, but as result of trade unions essential
character within the wider process of re-structuring of class relations.
The Maruti Suzuki strike in June is also an indicator for conflicts returning to the central
assembly plants. During the 1990s and early 2000s companies like Maruti were able to
guarantee more stable conditions in the centres by paying relatively high wages. The
general pressure on automobile companies to reduce labour costs has increased significantlysince the mid-2000s. Only three months earlier workers at General Motors plant in Gujarat
went on a wildcat strike [7]. Workers at Maruti showed that material divisions can be
overcome in struggle, in future workers will have to find ways to keep the struggle in their
own hands.MARUTI SUZUKISHINZO NAKANISHILABOUR UNRESTMANESARCAR
What triggered the violence at Marutis
Manesar factory?What triggered the violence at Marutis Manesar factory?Amrit Raj
First Published: Fri, Jul 20 2012. 12 30 AM IST
ALSO READ
Auto unions raise demands after Maruti wage settlement
Maruti to open Manesar plant under heavy security cover
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Maruti officials refuse to join work at Manesar
Updated:Fri, Jul 20 2012. 08 32 PM IST
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Manesar: Maruti Suzuki India Ltds Manesar plant was witness to prolonged labour strife last year,
but the violence unleashed on Wednesday that led to one person being killed caught its victims
completely unawares.
Some of us jumped off the first floor to save our lives as we saw a mob of workers, hundreds of
them, rushing towards us, one of the injured Maruti officials told reporters at a hospital in Gurgaon
on Thursday. He didnt want his identity to be disclosed because he feared for his safety.
They were armed with car parts, rods and other implements, the official said. They didnt spare
women either, said the official whose arms and legs bore marks of the encounter. The company said
the violence was planned, while the union denied there was any conspiracy.
Suzuki Motor Corp.s Indian unit didnt say when
the plant would resume production.
The person who died, Awanish Kumar Dev, generalmanager (HR), was burnt to death by the mob, the
company said in a press release. Devs charred
body was recovered by the police late on
Wednesday night and identified by his family on
Thursday.
Marutis Manesar plant union president Rammehar Singh denied any wrongdoing.
The Maruti Suzuki Workers Union is anguished at the recent developments (at) Manesar where the
management has resorted to anti-worker and anti-union activities in a pre-planned manner, leadingto the closure of the factory yesterday, Singh said in a statement.
Wednesdays violence left at least 100 company officials, including Japanese executives, injured.
Vishal Sehgal, a doctor at Artemis Hospital in Gurgaon, said most of the officials admitted had head
injuries and broken arms.
Loading video
The clash assumed diplomatic overtones, with the Japanese embassy issuing a statement in which
it condemned the violence.
The embassy of Japan strongly deplores the loss of life...caused by the sabotage perpetrated by a
group of workers at the Manesar plant...and condemns the violence and barbarism, it said. It called
on the state of Haryana, where Maruti is based, to punish the guilty and enforce law and order. We
expect that the Manesar plant will resume its operations and normalcy will be recovered at the
earliest.
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Maruti has plants in Gurgaon and nearby Manesar. The Gurgaon plant is functioning normally, the
company said.
The company said the violence didnt stem from an industrialrelations dispute over wages or
working conditions, but was orchestrated mob violence at a time when operations had been normal
over the past many months.
The Gurgaon police have formed a special investigative team of six officers under assistant
commissioner of police Ranbir Tomar. The police have arrested 88 workers under various penal
codes, including attempt to murder and assault on government servants.
We have deployed 1,200 police personnel at the plant and formed a special investigative team to
investigate the matter, said Maheshwar Dayal, deputy commissioner of police, Gurgaon.
Deepinder Singh Hooda, a member of Parliament from Rohtak in Haryana and son of chief minister
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said there needed to be a review of labour laws in the overall context ofsuch incidents.
Whatever happened is unfortunate and I hope the concerned authorities will take the required
action and the guilty (are) punished, he said. Labour is a state subject.
The violence is unlikely to have been premeditated and could have just been be guided by a herd
mentality, said Rajesh Chakrabarti, executive director at the Bharti Institute of Public Policy and a
clinical associate professor of public policy at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
The union has said the violence stemmed from an altercation between a worker and a supervisor.
A senior company official said on condition of anonymity that the situation had been building up for
the past 8-10 days, with several instances of worker hostility. Cases of manhandling and workers
spitting on supervisors faces were common, said this official. We also approached the police.
An undercurrent of tension seems to have flared up on Wednesday, said Mahantesh Sabarad,
senior vice-president, equity and research, Fortune Equity Brokers (India) Ltd. It tells us that last
years events are still fresh in workers minds and they are unhappy with the last years decisions.
Late last month, union leaders reiterated that demands agreed to by the company in 2011 had not
been met. Workers had wanted company transport to and from their homes, better workingconditions, regularization of leave, and higher wages.
Not much has improved barring additional transport facilities to areas like Rewari and Jhajjar,
Sarabjeet Singh, general secretary of the Manesar plant union, said in the June interview.
Sandeep Dhillon, the unions chief patron, said at the time, They still cut our salaries if we take more
than four days leave in a month.
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Dhillon, Sarabjeet Singh and Rammehar Singh, the unions president, were not reachable on
Thursday.
Pravat Chaturvedi, a former labour secretary, said the Maruti management could have handled the
situation better. He blamed the incident on the arrogance of the management.
Even last year, when there was a settlement, I had said this is not the right way to deal with these
issues, Chaturvedi said. I had also said that the company will suffer in the future. Look at what has
happened.
Mintreported on 23 April that the union had sent a notice asking for a doubling of salary and
enhanced transport facilities, among other demands.
A permanent worker gets Rs17,000 a month, while a casual worker gets Rs7,000. The plant has
around 3,000 workers, of whom 900 are permanent.
The Economic Times newspaper reported on 20 June that the Haryana labour department had
initiated proceedings against Maruti executives for allegedly violating last years agreement with
workers.
Maruti Suzuki had committed in that accord to form grievance redressal and labour welfare
committees at its Manesar plant. These have not been set up and wage raises are still under
negotiation.
Marutis production last year was disrupted by the industrial action at Manesar, which caused a
revenue loss of Rs2,500 crore.
The strike was called off following a tripartite agreement involving the management, workers and the
state government of Haryana. It later emerged that 30 workers, who had been the strikes main
leaders, were paid by the management to quit the company. The workers received a combined
Rs4.2-4.8 crore,Mintreported on 8 November.
Maruti said the company is still assessing the damage to property and facilities. What is clear is that
the office facilities have been burnt beyond repair, as have the main gate, security office and the fire
safety section, the company said.
Rammehar Singh in turn said some of this was done by persons hired by the company.
The bouncers, who are antisocial elements on hire, also destroyed company property and set fire to
a portion of the factory, he said. The gates were later opened to oust the workers and enforce a
lockout by the company.
Sabarad of Fortune Equity Brokers noted that the violence has taken place as Maruti recovers from
last years losses.
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This incident could do permanent damage to their market share because it has happened at a plant
where capacity was ramped up significantly and manufactures popular models, he said. Even if we
assume the company takes stern action againts errant workers, that mistrust between the
management and workers will be there for a long time. Its worrisome for investors
Maruti Suzuki shares fell 8.74% to close at Rs.1,117.35 on BSE on Thursday, while the benchmark
Sensex rose 0.55%.
Surabhi Agarwal, Liz Mathew, Prashant Nanda and Elizabeth Roche in New Delhi, and Shally Seth
in Mumbai contributed to this story.
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The Factories Act, 1948Section 46 in The Factories Act, 1948E.Mohan vs Madras Fertilizers Limited on 12 March, 2010M/S.Indian Petrochemicals ... vs Shramik Sena on 5 September, 2001S.S. International vs Electronics Corpn. Of India And ... on 21 February, 2008Citedby 1 docsThe Management Of Ennore vs The Workmen Rep. By The General ... on 8 June,2010
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