Hunger strike: Sacked workers regroup as Maruti limps back to normalcy

by Sindhu Bhattacharya and Pallavi Polanki

New Delhi: Protests by sacked workers of Maruti Suzuki India may be peaceful tomorrow but the very fact that these workers have regrouped and their demands are being supported by the country’s top trade union leaders could raise concerns for the car maker.

Expressing their dissatisfaction with state-government constituted Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) report on the violence at Maruti Suzuki Manesar plant, 546 permanent workers who were sacked will lead a day-long hunger-strike in front of the deputy commissioner’s office in Gurgaon on Wednesday.

After a deadly riot at its Manesar facility in July, Maruti had sacked over 500 permanent workers besides about 2,000 contract workers and suffered itself after the facility remained under lockout for almost a month. Till date, full production has not returned to Manesar and Maruti’s diesel car orders have piled up beyond 1.25 lakh units.

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A Special Investigative Team (SIT) probing the riot said it in its report last month that the July incident was a planned conspiracy to kill management present inside the plant at that time and workers came prepared to kill.

[caption id=“attachment_516458” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Should the Maruti management worry over these protests now?[/caption]

Now that Maruti is limping back to normalcy, sacked workers have regrouped to stage protests. The now defunct Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) has transformed into a provisional committee of seven - Imaan Khan, Ram Niwas, O P Jat, Mahavir Dhiman, Yogesh, Rajpal and Kartar Singh. This band of seven is now leading protests, which begin with a 36 hour hunger strike tomorrow and will culminate with a peaceful dharna the day after.

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Iman Khan, one of the seven members of the provisional committee nominated by the jailed union leaders, told Firstpost, “The Haryana government, the district administration and the Maruti management - none of them are prepared to listen to us. A fair inquiry into July 18 incident at Maruti’s Manesar plant should be conducted by a retired judge.”

Responding to what specific aspects of the SIT report they were dissatisfied with, Khan said: “In the chargesheet, names of witnesses have not been listed. It does not provide details of the nature and number of injuries suffered by the individual managers…The SIT report states that workers pre-planned the violence and there was no outside involvement. We are not in agreement with this finding. The relationship between union and the management has been strained and the Maruti management has never been in favour of a union.”

“If our demands are not met, we will keep up our protests,” said Khan.

One of the members of this committee spoke to Firstpost at length about the demands of his co-workers: impartial CBI probe into the July riot, release of 149 jailed colleagues (of which 20 are apprentices, 60 contract workers and rest permanent), and reinstatement of the 546 permanent workers Maruti sacked in the aftermath of this riot.

This worker alleged that the entire incident was orchestrated by the Maruti management but had no clear answers when asked about why would the company want to kill one of its own executives. He merely insinuated that a senior Maruti executive was instrumental in slowing down production at the plant so that rival car makers may benefit. And this executive wanted large scale disruption to production at Manesar.

This worker also said all charges leveled against the 149 workers who are incarcerated were false and an independent enquiry needs to be conducted by the CBI. He said the protests beginning tomorrow had full support of the country’s top unions including CITU, AITUC and the union representing workers of Honda in the Manesar belt.

Firstpost also spoke to the union leader of Maruti’s Gurgaon plant, Kuldeep Singh Janghu, who said his “boys” would also join these protests to show solidarity with sacked workers. But Janghu admitted that Maruti has been treating the new set of workers who are now working inside Manesar plant “decently” and that a recent pay revision at Manesar had been “good”.

Should the Maruti management worry over these protests now? A company spokesperson did not answer calls made for clarifications but was quoted by agencies as saying that sacked workers will not be taken back.

A story in the Economic Times today says Maruti has almost resumed normal production at the Manesar plant and is manufacturing around 1,600 cars per day. It is operating both the plants (Manesar and Gurgaon) and peak capacity is expected to be reached by the middle of this month.

This report also quotes Angel Broking as saying this as a negative development for Maruti Suzuki as the agitation by the workers would again disrupt the production at the plant. The production at the Manesar plant was returning back to normal levels post the strike and was expected to reach the peak levels of around 1800 cars/day by November 2012.

“We feel that the company management may not be comfortable with meeting the demand of the workers this time as the management was very clear that they would resume production at the plant only post a strict action against the workers involved in the July violence,” Angel Broking said in a report.