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Press Release- ‘Driving Force: Labour Struggles and Violation of Rights in Maruti Suzuki India Limited


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People’s Union for Democratic Rights
23 May 2013
Press Release
Release of PUDR report ‘Driving Force: Labour Struggles and Violation of Rights in Maruti Suzuki India Limited’(May 2013) at Press Conference in Chandigarh
On18 July 2012 a violent incident occurred at the Manesar unit of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), in which an HR manager died and some other managers as well as workers were injured. Following reports of severe harassment of Maruti workers and their families in late July 2012, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) began a fact-finding investigation into the incident, its context and implications. We are releasing our findings today in the form of a report ‘Driving Force: Labour Struggles and Violation of Rights in Maruti Suzuki India Limited’ (PUDR, May, 2013). This report follows PUDR’s two previous reports Hard Drive (2001) and Freewheelin’ Capital (2007) which recorded crucial moments of the labour struggle at Maruti. In the course of our fact finding, we have met or spoken to the workers (contract, permanent and terminated), the union leaders, their lawyer as well as officials from the labour department, Gurgaon, and different police officials. All attempts to meet the management turned out to be futile because it did not give us appointment for a meeting despite our persistent efforts.
PUDR’s findings, recorded in the report are as follows:
(1) The events of 18 July 2012 at Maruti’s Manesar unit are still heavily shrouded in ambiguity and the real culprits can be identified only if a thorough investigation is done by an independent agency which is not influenced by the management. The Haryana police have been consistently acting in a partisan manner favouring the management since the incident, and therefore cannot be entrusted with this task. The lack of an independent investigation into the incident has been amounting to a grave miscarriage of justice.
(2) In an absolute disregard for the rule of law, the entire blame for the incident was put on the workers not just by the management, but also the police and administration, long before the investigation was over. The nexus between the police and the management got exposed most starkly after the 18 July incident. The close correspondence between the FIR lodged by the police containing between 500 and 600 ‘unnamed accused’ and the termination of 546 workers by the company allegedly for being responsible for the violence on 18 July, cannot be a coincidence. It shows exactly how closely the police are protecting the company’s interests.
(3) This presumption of guilt governed the manner in which the police acted after the incident. The police arbitrarily arrested a large number of workers not through an investigation, but on the basis of lists provided by the management targeting the workers who were vocal, articulate and active in the union, subjected the arrested workers to brutal torture, violated the constitutional safeguards regarding detention and arrests and harassed the family members of the workers. Not only this it has been continuing to intimidate, target and attack the on going struggle of the terminated and other workers in order to silence and criminalise their legitimate protest (See Chapter Four). The scale of police action against workers seems to be aimed to act as a deterrent for any agitation in future – not only by these workers but also other workers in the Manesar and Gurgaon industrial
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area. Most recently on 18 May 2013, the Haryana police imposed Section 144 CrPC in Kaithal and arrested around 150 workers peacefully protesting there since 24 March demanding release of arrested workers and reinstatement of terminated workers.
(4) Another example of the police colluding with the management is that it has in the course of investigating the incident completely ignored the discrepancies in the management’s account, the fact that the workers were also injured, the presence of bouncers in the premises, or the fact that Awanish Dev, was always considered by the workers to be sympathetic to them. In fact it is the workers’ who have been demanding an independent investigation into the incident, a demand which has been ignored by the state and the central government.
(5) We wish to assert that an investigation and trial based on preconceived notions and not on the basis of scientifically gathered evidence could mean that those responsible for Awanish Dev’s death will go scot free and innocents will be penalised. A close look at the charge sheet filed by the police and denial of bail to the arrested workers shows that the case is moving in this very direction. This would amount to a travesty of law and denial of justice not only to the workers, but also to Awanish Dev.
(6) The incident should be seen in the context of the long chain of events that preceded it. It can be understood in the light of the continuous tension and conflict in the unit between the management and the workers as well as their persistent struggle of workers of the Manesar unit to register a union and draw attention to their inhuman working conditions.
(7) In September 2011, the Maruti management at the Manesar unit imposed a condition that the workers could enter the plant for work only after signing a ‘good conduct’ undertaking. The ‘good conduct’ undertaking effectively takes away the right of the workers to go on a legal strike, a right guaranteed by the Industrial Disputes Act (25T, 25U read with the Fifth Schedule); this also amounts to unfair labour practice as per Section 8, Fifth Schedule, IDA. (See Chapter Three)
(8) Like all other corporates, the main driving factor in Maruti is reducing production costs, maximising profits and competing against other companies. Maruti’s expenditure on workers is among the lowest in automobile companies. Moreover the company adopts various measures to extract maximum work from itsworkers. At Maruti therefore, the production capability and targets are set considerably higher than the installed capacity, i.e., production capability of the company is 1.55 million units per annum even though installed capacity is 1.26 units per annum (Annual Report, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, 2011- 12). Workers are made to work non stop like robots for eight and a half hours, with a break of only 30 minutes for lunch and two tea breaks of 7 minutes each. For years, workers have been made to both report for duty 15 minutes before shift-time and also work for 15 minutes extra every day without any overtime payment. Further the policy on leave is very stringent and the leave record is directly linked to the wages which are deducted on account of any leave taken. This contributes to the regime of ceaseless production and drastic increase in work pressure on the Maruti shopfloors.
(9) The wage deductions on account of leave are made from the incentive-linked part of the wages of Maruti workers, under the Production-Performance-Reward Scheme. A single leave taken by a permanent worker, with permission from the supervisor, could also cost him a loss of Rs. 1200 to Rs. 1500. Both before and after the 18 July 2012 incident, a part of the wages is fixed, and a major component paid as incentive wages linked to production, profit and leave records, which makes the wages fluctuating. Norms of incentive linked
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wages have been arbitrarily fixed and changed by the management at Maruti’s Manesar plant. (See Chapter Two and Three)
(10) Maruti management especially at Manesar have been resorting to use of temporary and contract labour as a norm, for regular work. In July 2012, according to figures tabulated by the Labour Department, less than 25% of the workers at Manesar were permanent. These workers are paid only for the days they work (i.e., 26 days a month) and considerably less than the permanent workers, for doing the same work. Not only is this a major cost cutting measure but it secures for the company a more vulnerable, disempowered and pliant work-force, less likely to be vocal and demand their rights. The company’s announced after the 18 July incident, that it will regularise its workers. This is yet to materialise. (See Chapter Two)
(11) The Maruti management has also consistently violated the workers’ rights by creating hurdles and actively preventing them from organising themselves. The policy of the Maruti management not to let the workers unionise, is a violation of the Indian Trade Union Act (1926). Since mid-2011, as the workers’ struggle intensified, the management has responded by targeting active workers through suspensions, terminations and registration of false cases against them. Once the union got registered, its members and coordinators have faced similar or worse harassment. All the union leaders and many active members were implicated in the 18 July incident leading to complete breakdown of the union and making the workers vulnerable as they have lost all avenues of negotiation with the management. A large number of active workers were subsequently terminated by the company, as mentioned, because the company arbitrarily held them responsible for the 18 July incident. After forcibly removing the union from the unit, the company is now making a farcical gesture towards dealing with workers’ issues, by setting up a joint worker-management ‘grievance committee’ and compelling the workers to be a part of it. The legally registered union (MSWU) whose members are continuing to take up workers’ issues are not being allowed to function inside the unit.
(12) The Haryana Labour Department has connived with the management in depriving the workers their right to unionise. In August 2011, it rejected the pending application of the workers for registration, citing technical grounds. Effectively, an application for registration filed on 3 June 2011, resulted in actual registration of the union on 1 March 2012, after months of fraught struggle. Moreover the Labour Department does not appear to have ever intervened in support of workers’ rights in the labour disputes at Maruti. When the management deducted Maruti Manesar workers’ wages on account of the lockout of 2011, by describing it as a strike, or when the management failed to act upon the Charter of Demands of workers in 2012, the Labour Department did not intervene. It has failed to question the management on its use of dubious and unfair labour practices, the ‘good conduct undertaking’ or the use of contract labour for regular work. (See Chapter Three)
(13) One of the notable features of the recent labour struggles at Maruti’s Manesar unit has been an unprecedented unity between permanent and contract workers. The labour union has consistently taken up issues pertaining to the contract workers. One of the main demands from the beginning of the struggle has been the regularisation of contract workers. The terminated workers who have regrouped under the MSWU include both permanent and contract workers. Contract workers are also among those who have been held guilty of the violence on 18 July and are now in jail.
What makes the Maruti story extraordinary is certainly not the company and its cars but the extraordinary struggle of its workers that has continued inspite of ruthless repression by the
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management and the police and failure of the labour department and the judiciary at all levels to provide any justice to them. Above all, the workers have tenaciously fought for their political right to form their own union. The struggle has also concentrated on creating democratic structures within the union, and through these, finding ways of articulating their grievances regarding the highly exploitative labour regime.
PUDR demands that:
1. An independent and unbiased judicial enquiry should be initiated into the events that led to the death of Awanish Dev. The judge nominated should be someone both parties are agreeable to.
2. The police investigation into the 18 July incident carried out by police officers of Haryana should be nullified and a fresh investigation be initiated, by an SIT comprising police drawn from other states.
3. The role of hired bouncers that led to the precipitation of the events at the spot be investigated.
4. The Haryana police officials, responsible for violation of legal guidelines regarding arrest and for custodial torture of arrestees, and harassment of their family members be identified and criminally prosecuted.
5. Re-instatement of all workers should be ensured in the absence of definite evidence of their involvement.
6. Role of the labour department should be investigated and action should be taken against the officials for not fulfilling their obligations related to labour laws.
7. All the workers arrested for the 18 July incident should be immediately granted bail. The trial into the incident should be speedily done and those not guilty should be acquitted.
8. Workers’ right to have their independent union be restored at Maruti. The MSWU which is the legally recognised union of the Maruti Manesar unit should be allowed to function inside the plant with immediate effect.
9. All the contract workers both at Manesar and Gurgaon unit be immediately regularised and practice of hiring contract workers for regular work should be stopped.
10. The rights of workers guaranteed in law be enforced at Maruti with immediate effect.
D. Manjit
Asish Gupta
Secretaries, PUDR

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by kracktivist on May 24, 2013  •  Permalink
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Haryana Governor- intervene to prevent violence and repression in Kaithal


To

The Governer

Haryana

Dear Sir,

We are deeply disturbed at the news that around 120-50 Maruti Suzuki workers present in the dharna site in Kaithal on 18. 05.2013 night, have been picked up by the Haryana Police around 11.30 pm. It is a matter of extreme anguish in the way the present government of Haryana is allowing the repression of workers struggles and to punish those who are sympathetic to them.

We would like to bring to your notice that Maruti Workers’ Union had announced a Gherao in Kaithal tomorrow at the residence of Industries Minister – the government has responded by clamping down section 144 and has deployed policemen all over the town. This is likely to result in violence as the workers and their supporters are travelling long distances to show their solidarity and unnecessary repression of their planned programme is not going to generate positive feelings.

Already the stand off in Maruti has continued too long because of the unrelenting ways of the police and administration who are keeping hundreds of workers in jail and are ready to make fresh arrests in the murder case by keeping the charge sheet open.

Now the government has spread its tentacles to exclude 93 Gram Sabhas from Government aid because the Sarpanchs expressed solidarity with the union. This impinges directly on the democratic rights of the villagers. They are free to associate as per Indian Constitution.

Such pro-management measures on part of a democratically elected government are not acceptable. It is meant to safeguard the interests of Indian citizens particularly the economically weaker sections and not override all constitutional guarantees in the interest of foreign capital.

Please take urgent measures and ask the Chief Minister to exercise restraint and not crush the Dharna of the union. The need of the hour is for confidence building not further destruction of faith in lawful processes which have suffered a setback in all these months of joblessness and victimization of workers.

We demand immediate stop to any repressive actions on the part of the present government.

Release of all the workers detained and ask the government to set up a non-partisan mechanism to address workers’ grievances

 

issued by feminist group, women against sexual violence, human rights activists, orgtanistaions and individuals

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by kracktivist on May 19, 2013  •  Permalink
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Maruti Suzuki :Ignition Trouble And After


Outlook Magazine  | May 13, 2013

 

Panini Anand
Court time Maruti hands being brought for a hearing
labour: maruti
Ignition Trouble And After
Jail, families thrown into trauma, grim future: the sacked Maruti labourers still harried
Cruel figures
  • 1 death in Maruti’s Manesar plant, of its HR manager Awanish Kumar Dev in July 2012, which led to a one-month lockout.
  • 66 workers on the run; in all, numerous cases have been filed against more than 200 workers at the Manesar plant
  • 147 workers lodged in Bhondsi jail, Gurgaon, for the past 9 months, named in up to 12 charges of murder
  • 550 permanent workers “suspended” by Maruti; 400 of them are agitating for jobs and an impartial probe.
  • 2100 sacked contract workers, many unemployed, have been forced to hide their connection to Maruti

***

The Hammer Strikes

  • Hearings have just begun on the framing of charges in the Gurgaon session court
  • Statement of officers recorded in charge sheet, but no versions of workers
  • Two counter complaints from workers have named 17 officials of Maruti
  • Maruti seeking to dismiss 550 suspended workers from the Labour tribunal
  • New committee of disgruntled former workers in initial talks with Maruti

***

“Are you from Maruti, or the state police department?” asks a visibly frightened lady when we knock at the door of her house in Dhakal village, Jind district, Haryana. She’s Omi Devi, mother of Jiyalal, a 27-year-old ITI dipl­oma-holder and employee at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant till the horrific incidents of July 18, 2012. That day, an argument Jiyalal had (over a caste slur) with his supervisor is said to have been the trigger for the cataclysmic events that followed—worker protests turned violent, leading to the death of an HR manager Awanish Kumar Dev, sending 100 workers and officials to hospital and enforcing a month-long lockout.

For nine months now, Jiyalal—and 146 former Maruti workers—have been lodged in Bhondsi Jail of Gurgaon. “The only mistake my son made was to speak out against the abusive language and casteist remarks. Tell me, is it wrong to stand up against such humiliation?” asks Ram Pal, his 50-year-old father. Jiyalal was supporting a family of eight—which is still in a state of shock. Aman, his 15-month-old son, has no memories of his father; his wife Sonia still looks scared, and Omi Devi keeps on crying. “Once my son is out from the jail, I will never ever let him go to work in such inhuman companies.”

That might take a while—the human cost of this labour incident has been staggering and disproportionate to the one death. After all, 12 charges of murder and more (rioting with weapons, attempt to murder, unlawful assembly, and so on) have been imposed on 147 workers. FIRs have been lodged against another 66, who are on the run. Some 400 terminated workers are protesting in Haryana, seeking their rights and entitlements from Maruti Suzuki. And over 2,000 former contract and apprentice workers at the plant are trying to rebuild their lives in fear and anonymity.

Through their relatives, the workers in jail insist that they are not being treated fairly and that the “real conspirators and culprits are blaming the innocents”. The stories from behind the bars are depressing—of pregnant wives, ailing parents, starving families, malnourished children, debts and loans. “All requests of bail plea or the parole custody plea have so far been rejected. The situations at our homes are worsening day by day. We knocked at many doors—from the prime minister’s to those of local politicians—but nobody hears the pain of the poor,”  an accused worker told Outlook.

About a year back, violence broke out at Maruti’s plant in Gurgaon. Workers arrested then still see no hope ahead.

All this matters now because the hearings in the case in the sessions court, Gurgaon, began on May 1 (Labour Day, incidentally). The chargesheet, exceeding 400 pages, has been filed but workers and their counsel have declared it incomplete. “The challans have been given to us, but there’s no list of witnesses. They’ve given the pretext that it’s unsafe to disclose the names. And workers’ acc­o­unts have not been taken into consideration at all. Only statements by Maruti officials have been taken,” says Rohtak-based senior advocate Randeep S. Huda, who is representing these workers. After an argument over the chargesheet, the sessions court ordered  public prosecutor K.T.S. Tulsi to provide all documents to the workers’  counsel.Despite repeated requests, Maruti did not respond to a questionnaire from Outlook. Recently, the company appointed two top Japanese managers to tackle the HR and production facilities at the Manesar plant. Since the incident, the company has also raised wages for contract workers at the Manesar plant—a key demand behind the workers’ initial agitation.


Far away Jiyalal’s wife holds up his photo. (Photograph by Sanjay Rawat)

Also, of the 540 dismissed permanent workers of Maruti’s Manesar plant, 400 come from Haryana itself. Two districts—Jind (150 workers) and Kaithal (120 workers)—make up the maximum numbers. The terminated workers are sitting on an agitation at the district commissioner’s complex in Kaithal. Recently, they had a small victory: talks with the Maruti management in the last week of April, first since the incident in July 2012. Further talks had been sch­eduled for the first week of May.

The terminated workers are dem­anding an independent inquiry into the nine-month-old incident. When Outlook  visited the district collector’s complex in Kaithal, it found a clutch of workers, most of them in their 20s, eating, reading newspapers and discussing strategy (some of them had gone back to the villages for harvesting). “We started our agitation in Kaithal because Randeep Singh Surjewala, the minister of commerce and industries in Haryana, is from this place. Moreover, we have a base and big public support in this area. It has been more than a month and we have no money to go on with the protest. But villagers, people from the city and nearby areas are providing us food and other essential support,” says Katar Singh, member of the Provisional Committee of Sacked Maruti Workers.

It’s not easy: a new seven-member committee was formed in August last year. Two members of this committee are named in another FIR that has been lodged by the Maruti management; one of them has since been arrested, another is underground. Initially, the protest started in March outside the residence of Surjewala, but they were forced to leave. They then went to meet Aam Admi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who is from Hissar, in  Haryana. But despite their meeting him 13 times, he didn’t speak a word for them. Now they are prepared to fight on their own. Sitting below a photo of Bhagat Singh and a next to a CD player belting out revolutionary songs, Bharat Kumar, one of the agitators, spews bitterness: “We always looked towards Maruti as a home but they (the management) never accepted the workers as family members.”

Yashvir Malik, 26, is one of the workers sitting in protest in Kaithal. He comes from Sudkain Khurd, a border village between Jind and Kaithal districts. His father, Ram Kumar, is a farmer with a landholding of some 1.25 acres and heavily in debt. “Yashvir is our only hope for all that we need at this age. I have no work; one leg is weak after a bad accident. My wife, too, suffers from age-related problems, anxiety. But now my only son is jobless—who will marry him? See what they have done to us,” says Ram Kumar.

Maruti workers who lost their jobs protest outside the district collector’s office in Kaithal, Haryana.

Yashvir’s family—and other villagers—are firm on fighting for the rights of these youth from their area. Yashvir’s family comes from Malik khap—the biggest khap of Haryana. When asked about the Gurgaon khaps supporting Maruti’s management, Ram Kumar says, “Gurgaon is not Haryana. The politics of Haryana is decided more from our and nearby districts. The khaps there are looking to their own interests and they are speaking the same language as our chief minister, but this is not going to help them.” It’s evident that the workers are lobbying with khaps and other social, political forces to ensure pressure is put on the state government and the Maruti Suzuki management.It’s also clear that the agitating workers are feeling let down by the lack of support for their cause. “Mainstream parties from the state and the nation have not even issued any statement on the issue. The chief minister of the state is continuously defending the Maruti management and blaming the workers. It seems that the representatives are sold out. Instead of ensuring fair and accountable governance in the state and implementation of labour rights, they are blaming the victims of the capitalism,” says Huda.

Even those who have managed to find jobs are not finding it easy to adjust to the fear around their past. Another worker Sanjay (name changed)—who was a contract worker in the Manesar plant and has no charges against him in this case—now works for a manufacturing unit in Gurgaon. “It was my first job at Maruti but I can’t tell anyone about it. If I had done so, it would have been impossible to get this job. I don’t want my new company to harass me, managers to distrust me and police to embarrass me without any reason,” says Sanjay, adding that “my present job is my first job now”. Not everyone among the 2,100 contract and apprentice workers is as lucky as Sanjay—many of them are still struggling to find jobs. The ones who have managed to do so are working for less than the minimum wages for unskilled labour.

The workers in jail have filed two counter cases against 17 Maruti Suzuki officials. The complaint by Jiyalal is pending in the court—if cleared, it might send some Maruti officials to jail under laws against inflicting atrocities upon SC/STs. In the first round of talks between workers and the management, Maruti officials insisted that workers should take back their counter complaints. In return, the workers asked the management to take them back, get innocent workers released and enforce a fair enquiry into the case. Both sides say that talks were “productive”—but it is starkly evident who is in control in this battle of unequals.
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by kracktivist on May 10, 2013  •  Permalink
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Maruti Suzuki Workers Union pamphlet on the occasion of May day


April 30, 2013

[Note from Maruti Suzuki Workers Union : We are currently on an indefinite dharna in Kaithal, Haryana since 24 March 2013, which included an 8-day Hunger Strike, and will continue until our demands are met. Please join us, in large numbers on 8th May 2013 in Kaithal (in front of the D.C. Office) for a program and rally to take the struggle forward.]

sitin2

Make Stronger the Unity of the Workers of Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera-Bawal and the Toiling Masses of Haryana !

On the occasion of May Day, take the pledge to challenge the attack of the Capitalists and the Government which serves their interests !

Friends and Comrades,

Our experiences in struggle since 4th June 2011 provide us with the realization of a renewed importance of May Day and its glorious history. Moulded and tempered in the hearth of the struggle against exploitation and repression, the meaning of this history confronts us with an immediacy and concreteness today.

Exploitation and unceasing exploitation, struggle and repression: what all have we not witnessed during the space of these two years! On the strength of our unity and the solidarity of the workers of the industrial belt of Gurgaon-Manesar, after three phases of strike actions in 2011, we finally formed our Union in March 2012. This expression of our collective strength was unbearable to the management of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Manesar and the state administration, who, to break this unity, as part of the conspiracy of 18th July 2012, declared us to be mindless criminals and terminated the jobs of 546 permanent and around 1800 contract workers. Along with this, 147 of our innocent fellow workers were thrown into jail, who continue to languish there, while non-bailable arrest warrants were thrust on 66 of us. An atmosphere of terror through continuous police repression and administrative intransigence firmly on side of the company management has been hounding us ever since. When we look at the horrible exploitative conditions of work of our fellow workers inside the factory today, the rationale behind the lies and fabrications of the company’s narrative around 18th July 2012 become clear to us. The workers working inside the factory today are bereft of all the rights that we won during the first phase of our struggle. Fewer workers than earlier toil harder than before. When even as much as an inkling of a renewed attempt to raise our voice, to establish our Union inside the factory came, 13 of the more active workers were promptly transferred to various corners of the country, and the attempt crushed there itself. So much for ‘everything’s under control’ in the Maruti’s ‘way of life’!

In this entire chain of events, rather than protect the rights of workers, we’ve found that the Government of Haryana has stood firmly on the side of the labour law-flouting, exploitative and illegal mechanisms of the Maruti company management. These ministers who make thousands of false promises just before the elections, have told us on many occasions that they cannot go against the ‘interest’ of the company. Without any impartial investigation, they declared us to be guilty and convicted. Thousands of policemen were posted to hound and repress our peaceful struggle. In order to ensure that our demands for our democratic rights do not reach the broader working masses of industrial belt in other factories, for the last nine months, the Haryana administration has effectively banned all dharnas and rallies in the Manesar area. They have even arrested some of our comrades for the ‘crime’ of distributing pamphlets with demands of workers! Our legitimate demands are such an eye sore to the Haryana government, that they did not give permission to hold even a dharna in front of the office of the Gurgaon D.C., and even our ongoing dharna in front of residence of Industries Minister, R.S. Surjewala in Kaithal has been sought to be crushed through various mechanisms.

In the light of the challenges that we faced in these last two years, when we remember the legacy of May Day, we feel an iron resolve in our hearts to take the struggle to its logical direction. On 1st May 1886, 80000 workers in Chicago had taken to the streets with the demand of an 8-hour working day, establishing the firm legacy of May Day. After this, the working class movement gained many successes. Even after this long militant history, today we find the larger section of the workers toiling day and night on 12-16 hour shifts under the vise-like grip of the illegal contract worker system. Workers are pitched against each other under the pain of unemployment, and the broad working masses find their lives deteriorating by the day for the profit of a handful of capitalists. To break the vicious cycle of capitalist exploitation, our previous generations have left us a strong legacy of militant struggle. Today when the capitalist regime and the government which is hand-in-glove with it, is making an all-out effort to snatch the gains of this legacy, we have to assume serious responsibility and resolve to protect these gains and take forward the workers movement with its new challenges.

During the space of our struggle, we have witnessed how the owners disregard and actively fight against our legitimate rights, even against the fundamental right to freedom of association and formation of Union to all others. Our movement has had two primary demands – the right to organize and complete abolition of the illegal contract worker system. Both these demands are well within the ambit of our Constitutional rights, but not only the company management, but even the media and the government which stands on the basis of the Constitution has continuously tried to suppress this. After the formation of our Union in March 2012, the Maruti company management flatly refused to even negotiate on our demand of regularizing contract workers in our Charter of Demands. The owners cannot tolerate the unity of permanent and contract workers. While the contract worker system has on the one hand become the principal basis of profit extraction from the cheap, insecure labour for capitalists today, it is at the same time becoming the main reason of the miserable conditions of workers in the country and worldwide. This is the main weapon in the hands of the capitalists to divide the workers movement. We can only face this by generalizing our unity and make our struggle against the segmentation between permanent and contract workers more resolute. We have learnt this lesson from our struggle.

Comrades, May Day is the celebration of the collective power arising from the unity of workers! But this unity is today in a precarious condition and we are faced with many difficulties while confronting this task of rebuilding our unity. The ever-worsening conditions of work and life are being responded to by the eruption of anger and unrest by workers all over the country. Despite the emergence of these mostly spontaneous bursts of anger, we feel that an able and responsible leadership organically linked with these aspirations and with the correct direction, is lacking which can take these agitations to the logical militant direction that they demand. To establish the unity of permanent and contract workers, a lot still requires to be done. While in the last phase we have witnessed the formation of Unions in some factories here and there, there remains a glaring need to form an even stronger unity among workers across various factories. Owing to these problems, even struggles which are militant in their initial phase, face disappointment and are forced to come to a compromise. Today, the Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera-Bawal industrial area is among the main centers of industrial production in the country. The working masses here have had experiences of many big movements in the area. In this scenario, it is important that we imbibe the knowledge gleaned in these struggles and make an uncompromising attempt to seek out solutions to the challenges we face, and also take it forward to the working masses of the entire country. Any exploitation of workers anywhere is an attack on the entire workers movement. To build up a concrete militant unity against this, is our primary aim. We want to place this task before the working class of the entire country today on the occasion of May Day, and pledge ourselves completely to work towards this aim.

Inquilab Zindabad! Mazdoor Ekta Zindabad!

MARUTI SUZUKI WORKERS UNION

Released by the Provisional Working Committee, MSWU, Manesar, Gurgaon

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Press Release-Auto Workers convention @9dec #Delhi


MARUTI SUZUKI WORKERS UNION

Registration No. 1923

IMT Manesar

 

 

Press Release: 8 December 2012

As you know, we from Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) have called for an Auto Workers CONVENTION on 9th December 2012 in Ambedkar Bhavan, Jhandewalan, New Delhi with common demands of auto workers in NCR industrial belt.

 

This program with our legitimate demands has been declared one week back, for which we have given due information for permission to the PMO and the Paharganj police station and have received copies of the same. But Haryana and Delhi government administration through the use of Police of both the states, along with CID Haryana has come down heavily on us for raising our legal and legitimate demands. They have denied us permission to hold the Convention in the evening today with the imagined reason that this will disrupt peace in the area. And since last two days, Haryana Police and CID has been calling on us and our parents and relatives to strongly threaten against holding this program and any such program in the future, or force will be used against us.

 

We condemn this direct attack on our democratic right guaranteed under the Indian Constitution by the joint forces of Haryana and Delhi government administration through the naked use of force in the service of the Maruti Suzuki management. And with what we have seen in the last four months, this is nothing new to us now, as the police and government administration have nakedly sided with the company management in their attempt to crush our voice of truth.

We appeal to all concerned with democratic rights and our just struggle to stand by us as we will go ahead with the declared program tomorrow and similar programs in the near future. Our fellow workers from across Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera-Bawal-Noida-Faridabad-Ghaziabad industrial belt will join us and strengthen our struggle.

 

Condemning the police and administrative action against us, we reiterate our demands:

1. In the permanent nature of work in the auto sector in Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera-Bawal-Faridabad-Noida-Ghaziabad industrial region, completely abolish the illegal contract worker system by the year 2013. Till they are not made permanent, all workers in the auto sector in this region should be given minimum wage of Rs.15,000.

2. All permanent workers in the auto sector must be given minimum wage of Rs.25000.

3. Unions must be formed in the auto belt industrial region. Within 45 days of application for registration of Trade Union, the concerned labour department must ensure the registration of the Trade Union with due process.

4. The High Court order in favour of workers of Eastern Medikit must be immediately implemented and the illegal lockout be ended. Take back all the workers of Eastern Medkit and ensure payment of due wages.

5. Along with all the 546 illegally terminated workers of Maruti Suzuki Manesar, all the contract workers must be immediately taken back to work.

6. All the arrested workers of Maruti Suzuki Manesar must be immediately released, the false cases withdrawn and stop the repression and torture of workers.

 

Sincere Regards,

Provisional Working Committee
MARUTI SUZUKI WORKERS UNION

 

Program details:
Date: 9 December 2012; 11am to 6pm.
Place: Ambedkar Bhavan, Panchkuiyan Road, near Jhandewalan Metro Station, New Delhi

 

Contact: Imaan Khan- 09467704883, Ramnivas- 08901127876, Omprakash-08607154232, Mahavir-09560564754,Yogesh- 08510043143, Katar Singh-09728778870, Rajpal- 09555425175

 

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Maruti Suzuki pleads inability to pay Rs 1,200 cr more for Manesar plant land to farmers


29 NOV, 2012, SAMANWAYA RAUTRAY,ET BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Maruti SuzukiBSE -0.29 % has pleaded inability to pay over Rs 1,200 crore by way of enhanced land acquisition dues for 600 acres it acquired for theManesar plant in 2002, and urged the Supreme Court to hear it before taking a call on the enhanced compensation amount for farmers.

Maruti had paid Rs 118.90 crore for 602.40 acres in 2008. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in an order dated February 11, 2011, enhanced the compensation amount to Rs 37.40 lakh per acre from Rs 28.15 lakh per acre fixed by the reference court. The apexBSE 0.00 % court later fixed it at Rs 28.15 lakh in an interim order on August 10, 2011.

The cost of the 1994 acquisition was fixed at a uniform Rs 15 lakh per acre in an earlier high court judgement and later enhanced by the Supreme Court to Rs 20 lakh per hectare. In fixing Rs 37.40 lakh, the high court used a 12 per cent increase per annum formula from the 1994 acquisition.

The judgement entails an additional payment of Rs 1,200 crore by the company to Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC), which acquired the land and handed it over ‘raw’ to Maruti Suzuki.

Land was acquired in Manesar area in three phases. Land for Phase I was acquired in 1994. Phases II and III were acquired in 2002. Maruti’s case was first pleaded by senior counsel PS Patwalia and then Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

“It is a huge project, giving employment,” Patwalia said. “If Rs 1,000 crore has to be paid, some hard decisions will have to be taken,” he said. “There’s been violence and arson in the plant,” he said, hinting at the possibility of things becoming worse there.

The Manesar plant, which produces Maruti’s more popular models and their diesel variants, has been embroiled in a bitter labour unrest for some time now. Singhvi, intervening later, said the project exported a significant number of cars and “was an important project for Haryana”.

He contended that the project would become unviable as the costs would go awry. “Is it fair?” Patwalia argued that the cost of land acquired for the project was estimated at Rs 100 crore, now it was over Rs 1,000 crore.

Maruti, in its plea that the court agreed to hear, explained the delay in approaching the court by saying it had no cause to worry till April 2012 when HSIDC slapped a Rs 235-crore charge on it as additional compensation costs.

The company argued that 65 per cent should have been deducted towards development charges as the land was not developed at all, and the company had invested huge amounts to improve it and create infrastructure.

The high court, while enhancing the compensation, also did not take into account any contemporary evidence and instead banked on prior or subsequent evidence by way of sale deeds to arrive at the cost of the land, Maruti claimed.

It also claimed that the land acquired in Phase I was close to NH 8 and should be valued higher than Phase II and III and not the other way round.

A bench, comprising Justices GS Singhvi and KS Radhakrishnan, was initially reluctant to hear Maruti but later agreed, before taking a final call on the compensation to be paid to the farmers.

Justice Singhvi was very critical of Haryana for acquiring and divesting land on a no-profit basis. “If no profits are to be made, why should the state acquire it for private parties at all? A better way would be to earmark land for particular purposes in the master plan and allow private parties to negotiate directly with the landowners,” Justice Singhvi said.

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Sacked Maruti Manesar workers begin dharna


The Hindu

NEW DELHI, NOV 7:

Workers of Maruti’s Manesar plant, who were terminated following the violence on July 18, began a dharna in front of the Gurgaon Court/District Commissioner’s Office on Wednesday morning, even as tension was palpable in the area.

“The police came in the morning and pulled off the tents from the site. The workers, about 350 in number, had to re-install the tents and the dharna has begun. More workers will join later ,” alleged Satbir Singh, President, Haryana CITU. Many central unions such as the AITUC and CITU, as well as Maruti’s Gurgaon union have pledged their support to the protest.

“While we will not take part in the hunger strike, we will join them in the protest rally to be held after it as a mark of support,” Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union General Secretary Kuldeep Janghu told a news agency on Tuesday.

In a release, the MSWU has demanded an independent impartial probe into the July 18 incident, and into the role of the management in it, the immediate release of all arrested workers, reinstatement of all 546 terminated workers among others.

The release issued on Tuesday by the provisional working committee of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union (registration no. 1923) said the united protest action was to seek justice for 149 workers ‘languishing’ in Gurgaon Central Jail for the last three-and-a-half months, and the 546 permanent workers who have been terminated from their jobs. It said the 149 workers would go on hunger strike inside Gurgaon jail.

“We have the solidarity of the around 2,000 contract and casual workers who have also been unceremoniously thrown out of their jobs,” the release , signed by Imaan Khan, Ram Niwas, O. P. Jat, Katar Singh, Yogesh, Raj Pal, and Mahabir said.

On Thursday, the workers plan to take out a rally in the area to submit a memorandum to the local Minister. They said they were forced into this protest action as the workers’ family members, relatives and well-wishers had given umpteen memorandums to all the Ministers in the State but in vain.

“The entire leadership (of MSWU) was put behind bars and is being portrayed as ‘killers’ without any impartial investigation, and complete silence on the role played by the Maruti management,” the release said.

Meanwhile, trade unions have condemned the Maruti Manesar management for ‘operating under police cover’. “This is a complete violation of all democratic norms in the country,” Singh said.

A Special Investigation Team formed by the Haryana Government has reportedly concluded that the violence at the plant on July 18, in which an HR manager was killed, was due to internal issues between the management and workers. It is said to have ruled out external influence, as suspected by the company.

aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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An Appeal-Maruti Suzuki Workers Union


 

Maruti Suzuki Workers Union

 

Inquilab Zindabad! Mazdoor Ekta Zindabad!

 

 

Support our Struggle

November 2, 2012

 

 

Friends and Comrades,

 

We, the workers of Maruti Suzuki, Manesar are facing one of the toughest times in our struggle, with 160 of our fellow workers languishing in jail for the last three months (including all the MSWU representatives), while 546 permanent and another 2000 contract and apprentice workers have been terminated from their jobs. We are waging a relentless struggle against the anti-labour Maruti management, and we are fighting it out in the court, as well as in the streets, with our legitimate demands for reinstatement of terminated workers, release of arrested workers and investigation into the incident of 18th july 2012 by an impartial authority.

As the struggle continues, we appeal to all to stand in support by contributing to the struggle fund.
You can send your contributions directly to:

Account no. 912010057524329

AXIS Bank
Branch: SCO-29, SECTOR-14, Near HUDA Office, Old Delhi-Gurgaon Road, Haryana, India.

IFSC Code : UTIB0000056 
Branch Code : 000056
MICR Code : 110211008

Joint account holders name:
Imaan Khan, Ram Niwas, Omprakash Jaat

 

Please inform us by email at: marutiworkerstruggle@gmail.com so that we could confirm that we received your contribution to the struggle fund.

Struggling greetings,
Provisional Working Committee, MSWU

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Join Convention- intensified assault on Maruti workers: 7 Sept, ISI, Delhi


 
Invitation 
Convention 
INTENSIFIED ASSAULT ON WORKING CLASS:
CHALLENGES FOR DEMOCRACY


7 SEPTEMBER 2012
Indian Social Institute (Lodhi Road, Near Sai Temple)

2 pm – 5 pm

to be addressed by

Maruti workers
S Kumarasami, President of the Pricol Auto Factory Union (Coimbatore), and All-India President, AICCTU,

 Workers and Labour Organisers of Delhi-NCR

Prabhu Mahapatra
Vrinda Grover

Rakhi Sehgal
Neelabh, Editor, Outlook

Colin Gonsalves
ND Pancholi, PUCL
And Other Concerned Citizens

Dear friends,
We are all aware that the recent events in the Maruti’s Manesar factory are in no way an isolated occurrence. In fact, in recent years, there have been several similar incidents in factories all over the country. The incidents at Maruti, Graziano, Rico, Pricol, etc point to a disturbing situation in which industrial democracy is being eroded and even ruthlessly crushed.
The fallout in the Maruti case is especially disturbing. We find that police and paramilitary battalions and ‘ex-Army’ forces are being deployed on the shop floor and around the factory. There is a deliberate attempt at political mobilisation in villages against the workers: village ‘leaders’ are holding meetings in Haryana accusing Maruti workers and unionised workers in general of being ‘anti-development’ and ‘anti-Haryana.’
We feel there is a need to discuss the implications of these developments for our democracy, and to discuss how to break the encirclement in which the working class is increasingly finding itself, in spite of very remarkable trade union struggles.
Towards this, a Convention will be held on 7 September, at ISI, 2 pm-5 pm. At this Convention, Maruti workers will share their own experiences and facts regarding the incident of July 18. S Kumarasami, President of the Pricol Workers’ Union, (also National President of the AICCTU), who is himself facing cooked-up charges of attempt to murder in the 2009 Pricol case, will speak about the Pricol workers’ struggle. Workers and labour organisers working in the Delhi-NCR region will also speak.
We very much hope you can join us in this Convention, and help the workers’ voices to be heard above the shrill cries for ‘reform’ of labour laws and ‘discipline’ for the workers…In solidarity,

Santosh Roy, Secretary, AICCTU, 7838497013
Sandeep Singh, President, AISA, 9868033425
Kavita Krishnan, 9560756628

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With most workers fleeing in terror, unions pin hopes on fair probe #Maruti


 

Aditi Nigam

MARUTI MANESAR VIOLENCE

New Delhi, July 29:

Analysts don’t see ‘light at the end of the tunnel, at least for the time being’ for Maruti’s Manesar plant, but the workers in its Gurgaon plant are hopeful.

“Our two jewels (here), Swift and DZire are made in Manesar. We are doing our bit to ensure immediate lifting of the lock-out there so that work restarts,” Kuldeep Janghu, General Secretary of Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union, told Business Line.

But will all the Manesar workers be taken back, or will new workers be recruited? Janghu smiled, but did not answer the question. As of now, most of Maruti Manesar workers have fled or are underground.

In 2011, there were 970 permanent workers, about 1,100 contract workers, 400-500 trainees and 200-300 apprentices. Some permanent and contract workers were suspended after last year’s strike.

The lock-out followed the violence on July 18 that led to the gruesome death of an HR Manager, left about 90 officers injured and caused a fire in the administrative block. About 3,000 workers fled their homes overnight.

Ironically, the lock-out notice has been pasted on the main gate in Hindi and English alongside a black marble plaque with “Maruti Suzuki Employees Union, IMT, Manesar, Gurgaon (Regd no 1923), Established on March 1, 2012” written in golden letters. The tension is palpable and an air of suspicion hangs in the area.

Investigations on

The Haryana Government has set up a special investigation team and the Maruti management is merging its findings with it. The Japanese Embassy is said to be conducting its own probe.

The questions are many. What went wrong in the once buzzing car plant that catapulted as a market leader in the country? Why did the workers, most of them in their 20s, who carried out a peaceful and prolonged struggle last year, suddenly turn violent? What were the 300-odd bouncers hired by the company doing? Why didn’t the Haryana Police act? Wouldn’t one teargas shell or one firing in the air have dispersed the miscreants? The police could brutally cane Honda workers in 2005, so why not in this case? The dead HR Manager’s wife, too, has raised some of these questions.

Corporate statements abound and accounts of the injured managers have started trickling in. But, to reach any fair conclusion about the ‘good, bad and the ugly’, the camera has to zoom into every nook and corner of the scene.

The First Information Report by Maruti reportedly names 55 workers and has added 600 others. “Some 90-odd workers, many of whom were on the other shifts, have been picked up,” Janghu said. “They can be made to say anything in custody,” added another worker. Clearly, they did not trust the Haryana Government probe team and wanted a CBI inquiry.

There is terror in the villages where these workers stayed, said Satbir, President of Centre of Indian Trade Unions, which has sought a judicial inquiry. “Anyone is being picked up by the police to make up for the figure of 600. They are also picking up parents and family members and harassing them,” he added.

A Maoist angle is also being floated. “It is too premature. Could be anything, could be Maruti’s competitors, could be Maoists, could be a section of workers or the management,” Janghu said.

Area unions admitted that the situation in Manesar was “worrisome”, but warned against the danger of demonising all workers, which was adding to the panic among the huge casual workforce, largely from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.

Widespread concerns

“The tendency to demonise all workers is not good for industrial relations in the belt. The massive turn-out in the July 25 Honda factory meeting signals the widespread concerns of workers,” said Satbir.

Workers from Maruti’s Gurgaon plant, Suzuki Powertrain, Suzuki Castings, Suzuki Motocycle, Lumax Auto Technologies, Satyam Auto Components, Endurance Technologies, Hi-Lex India Pvt Ltd, Rico and others attended the meeting despite prohibitory orders.

Not just factory labour, about 30,000 workers attached to Maruti Manesar plant vendors are also sitting idle, said Satbir.

The huge casual workforce, a critical mass of this industrial belt, is living on the edge, with no laws to protect their livelihood, no social or job security, poor working and living conditions.

“In Manesar, the rent for one small room is a minimum of Rs 3,000. With inflation and rising transport costs, and a cut to the contractors, there is nothing left. Some companies even deduct provident fund and ESI from contract workers’ wages but do not submit these,” said Janghu.

According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, between 2004-2005 and 2009-2010, the number of casual workers increased by 21 million, while regular workers increased by only 5.8 million.

Corporates blame rigid labour laws for their increasing dependence on casual labour. But, unions do not buy this.

“Who follows labour laws? Two years ago, 11 workers died in a Panipat factory. None of them were registered. When we approached the Haryana Labour Department, we were told that the factory itself was not registered,” Satbir.

“The problem is that 21st century corporates have 15th century mindset when it comes to treating workers. You can’t turn half the wheel of development back,” he added.

aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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by kracktivist on July 31, 2012  •  Permalink
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