October 15: Maruti Suzuki Employees Union’s Press Release

October 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

WE, the workers of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., IMT Manesar organized as Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) have been on strike since 7th October 2011. Along with us, all the workers of Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd, Suzuki Castings and Suzuki Motorcycle India P. Ltd. have been on strike from the afternoon of 7th Oct. On that day itself, workers from Lumax Auto Technologies Ltd (165, Sector-5), Lumax DK, Satyam Auto Components Limited (26 C, Sector – 3), Endurance Technologies Ltd ( Plot No. 400, Sector 8), Hi-Lex India Pvt Ltd, (Plot No.55 Sector-3), Bajaj Motors and a few more companies had gone on a one day strike. The workers from the four plants of Suzuki group have continued their strike.

From 7th October when we were forced to go on strike, a lot of misinformation campaign has been undertaken by the company blaming us for ‘violence’ on fellow workers and of ‘seizing’ the factory, while the fact was that the management and its contractors have indulged in violence, and employees and company officials have been free to go in and out of the factory.We have been on strike because of our just demands and our struggle for work with dignity.

After the settlement on 30th September post the 33 day long agitation from August 29th, while we have acted in complete good faith, the management began violating the terms of the agreement from the very next day. Going back on its word of treating the workers with respect, it has on the contrary been acting with vengeance. On the workers reporting for duty the day after the strike, the management flatly refused to let the over 1,200 contract workers enter the factory, so as to break our spirit and divide the unity between permanent and contract workers. It shuffled permanent workers from their workstations so that allegations of ‘production sabotage’ and ‘go slow’ could again be put on us and show the workers of having violated the agreement. Such a shuffling of skilled workers, accustomed to and specialized at their specific tasks is far from being conducive to optimal production in the factory. Such a move therefore makes evident that full production targets are not a priority with the management at this point. The already inadequate bus service was also stopped to further harass us.

While ‘violence’ has been blamed on us, it is a fact that contractors on the behest of the management used bouncers who threatened and attacked us recently in front of the factory gate on the morning of 7th Oct, this incident took a more blatant aspect when some goons came and beat us up at the factory gate on the 8th and threatened us for our lives. They even attempted to actualise their threat by coming with guns inside the Suzuki Motorcycle plant on the 9th morning and firing three rounds on our fellow workers there. All legal and illegal means have been used by the management now as in June and then again in August-September to break the legitimate raising of our voices.

Violating the spirit of the agreement by acting with bad faith and vengeance, the over 1200 contract workers have not been allowed entry since the settlement on 30th September. Apart from the 44 suspended, a fresh list of 50 workers to be terminated and suspended has been put up in MSIL after 7th October. 18 workers from Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd have been dismissed yesterday. As of last night after High Court order, we the workers of MSIL are sitting outside the factory gate.

The government earlier gave us empty promises after the company broke the spirit of the settlement by acting in anti-worker bad faith. Ever since we have been on strike due to circumstances created by the management, it has been issuing us show-cause notices instead of acting against the company which is habitually reneging on its promises and violating all labour laws. Our fight is for a just cause but the administration instead sent a show cause notice to Suzuki Powertrain Employees Union which threats the cancellation of registration of this Union.

Since yesterday, the state administration has used intimidation when around 1500 police personnel, now increased to around 2500, have been posted in and around the factory. Yesterday the police arrested MSEU’s body member Sushil, and went to the houses of all the workers who have raised their voices. They entered the factory gate joined by police already occupying the canteen and dismantling our set-up to cook food outside for those inside the factories.

The management yesterday tried to push us into starvation by blocking the entry of food, water supply and locking up the toilets.

Given that it had no problem in arresting our leaders last month on false charges, and knowing the attacks on some of our fellow workers and the brutal lathicharge on the workers of Honda in 2005, and looking at the deployment of police, it has now become evident that the Haryana administration is preparing for taking brutal and violent steps to smash our movement and disperse us from here. Such an assault will not just be on us but the right of all working people.

WE are concerned that the factory runs quality production and we are given our rights. Our struggle is a struggle for our dignity and right to our own Union. We struggle also more importantly for the contract workers among us, whose insecurity and precarious condition of existence is a burning issue before all people of the country today. The struggle in Maruti Suzuki has emerged as the concrete struggle of the around 8000 workers of the four plants of Suzuki group- Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd., Suzuki Castings, Suzuki Motorcycle India Ltd and we have also received support from workers of many other factories all who face similar situation today.

We reiterate our demands:

1. Unconditionally take back on duty all the terminated and suspended workers- permanent, trainee and contract.

2. Immediately revoke all the pending and ongoing charge-sheet imposed on the workers as they are false and only a means to harass us.

3. Recognize our right to form our own Union. The situation that had arisen on 3rd June 2011 due to the management’s refusal to recognise our Union should be resolved.

4. Immediately stop all repressive measures, and stop police action on workers, release our Union members arrested on the morning of 14th October and stop further arrests and detentions. Punish the perpetrators of the case of firing on 9th October morning.

5. Stop management’s ploy to blame ‘industrial sabotage’ and ‘indiscipline’ on us, by various harassment techniques, including changing workstations.

6. Resume the already inadequate bus service.

7. The termination of 18 workers of Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd must be revoked immediately. All the demands of the workers’ Unions of Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd, Suzuki Castings and Suzuki Motorcycle India Ltd. must be met, and the termination and suspension should be withdrawn unconditionally in these plants, and the respective managements’ vindictive attitude should stop immediately.

Shiv Kumar
General Secretary
Maruti Suzuki Employees Union

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Strike in Maruti Suzuki and seven other factories in Manesar: The Struggle Continues

October 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

The struggle of the workers in Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, IMT Manesar refuses to die. Just when it was quietening under settlement truce, it stood up again, gathering political edge and crucial concrete support among workers in the area. In a significant development today, the 7th of October 2011, the workers in seven nearby factories along with workers of MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD, IMT MANESAR have gone on strike. These are workers in the nearby plants of SUZUKI POWERTRAIN INDIA LTD. and SUZUKI CASTINGS (Plot 1, Phase 3A), and SUZUKI MOTORCYCLE INDIA PVT. LTD (in the Gurgaon-Manesar road), along with the workers of LUMAX AUTO TECHNOLOGIES LTD (165, Sector-5), SATYAM AUTO COMPONENTS LIMITED (26 C, Sector – 3), ENDURANCE TECHNOLOGIES LTD ( Plot no. 400, Sector 8), HI-LEX INDIA PVT LTD, (Plot No.55 Sector-3) completely halting production.

More than 10000 workers in these factories have stood in solidarity with the struggling comrades in Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), cautioning the management against its refusal to refrain from unfair labour practices and vindictive attitude, even after the recent settlement on September 30. They ask the management to stop targeting contract workers in MSIL.

Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd., which manufactures diesel engines and transmissions for MSIL and has an annual production capacity of 3 lakh units, has around 1250 trainee and permanent workers, along with over 600 contract workers; Suzuki Castings, a part of Powertrain, has around 375-400 trainee and permanent workers, with over 500 contract workers, while Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt. Ltd., has around 1200-1400 workers who relentlessly produce around 1,200 motorcycles and scooters a day. These around 4500 workers along with over 5000 workers in the nearby plants of Lumax Auto Tech Ltd, Satyam Auto Components Ltd, Endurance Technologies Ltd and Hi-Lex India (P) Ltd., have joined forces with around 1000 permanent workers sitting in and 1200-1300 workers demonstrating outside the gate of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

The build-up to this strike has of course been the long struggle of MSIL workers, organised under Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) on the right to organize and unionise. They have resisted the vindictive attack by the management and its relentless efforts to divide them. Throughout the conflict, the state administration, police and even the media have shown their anti-worker character. The struggle which began this time on August 29th after the attack by the management – terminating and suspending 62 workers, came to a settlement on 30th September 2011. A crucial aspect of the settlement was that the permanent workers union fought for and secured the rights of the 18 terminated trainees who otherwise had insecure nature of jobs. This only confirms the solid unity among permanent, contract and casual workers that has been the hallmark of MSIL workers’ struggles.

Under the settlement, the management was to refrain from acting against the workers in ‘bad faith or with vengeance’, but this unity of the workers during the struggle and after the settlement was not acceptable to it. The management is hell bent on breaking the spirit of solidarity and struggle among the workforce. After partial production resumed this Monday, October 3, the management was more interested in furthering its agenda of attack on workers’ unity through various means rather than resuming production. A reshuffling on the assembly line was done to this effect, with workers who have worked for four years on a line, were shifted to some other area on the shop floor. More importantly, around 1000-1200 contract workers were not allowed to enter the factory premises and were turned back from the gate when they reported for duty on Monday. This was done, as is the management’s ploy in the area, to pit the contract workers against the permanent workforce and to break their spirit of unity and struggle.

When the leadership of Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) met the DC, Labour Commissioner and other state authorities against this unfair labour practice of the management of MSIL, and against the spirit of the settlement of 30th September this week, they got empty assurances, and dismissive attitude. The management is however adamant that its project of teaching workers a lesson is not over and refuses to budge from its position. It in fact, used a contractor, Rakesh, who brought in 10-15 ‘bouncers’ to threaten and physically assault the workers when they gathered outside the gate today, to provoke the workers so that the police could be brought in again.

These conditions of a completely anti-worker attitude of the management of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, its relentless vengeful attack on the solidarity of workers, its refusal of work to contract workers even after the settlement, its use of legal and illegal measures to crush the spirit of struggle of workers must stop immediately, and we appeal to all concerned to stand in solidarity with this continuing struggle of workers.

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Evils of Casualisation: Airtel will not be allowed to enslave Nigerians

October 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Press Conference by Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) held on Tuesday 4th October 2011, at Labour House, Abuja

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) welcomes you to this press conference which is primarily to expose the evils of casualising permanent work, and the decision by the Airtel Management to enslave Nigerians on the 51st independence anniversary of our country.

As you know, Airtel took over the GSM Service Provider Zain. The company employed a handful of workers and decided to turn almost all the permanent jobs in the company into casual work.

Rather than employ staff to work in the company, Airtel contracted out the permanent jobs to two Indian companies; Spanco Channel BPO Limited and Tech Mehindra. Since these two parasitic companies cannot do the job, they in turn hired three Nigerian companies; HR Index, C.C. SNL and Bezeleel to hire Nigerians for the Airtel jobs.

Airtel then seconded hundreds of its staff inherited from Zain to these third party companies. Some of these staff had worked for seven years! It is under this exploitative arrangement the Nigerian staff were made to work; some of them without letters of appointment and identity cards, and non with a Condition of Service. These categories of workers were also denied all rights they were entitled to as Airtel staff or are supposed to benefit as staff.

Under such unbearable working conditions, the workers went on strike in July 2011 to demand for basic rights including the right to unionise and payment of incentives paid by Airtel to staff.

The NLC and its affiliate union, the National Union of Posts and Telecommunication Employees (NUPTE) intervened to protect the workers against the power of the transnational Company, Airtel, and its quite powerful collaborators in government who were threatening the workers.

On Wednesday, 27th July. 2011 the Airtel Network signed a three-point agreement with the NLC and NUPTE which was witnessed by a mutually agreed mediator, Bamidele Aturu Esq. The agreement signed by Airtel Director, Paul Usoro, SAN, and Jubril Saba, its Human Resources Manager stated clearly that the “Outstanding Third Quarter, 2010 and First Quarter 2011 Incentive Scheme “…shall be paid across board to all call centre/shop employees on modalities to be worked out by the management of Airtel on or before the 31st day of August, 2011 in consultation with the workers representatives”.

The agreement also provided that no worker will be victimized as a result of the industrial action and that the Mediator will be allowed to “resolve all outstanding industrial relations issues among the stakeholders as soon as practicable”.

Unfortunately, the Airtel Management has not implemented this agreement despite spirited efforts by the NLC, and advice by the Mediator.

To circumvent implementing this agreement, to avoid paying the workers their entitlement and to punish them for joining a union, the Airtel Management in collaboration with its parasitic partners offered the workers impossible conditions if they are to retain their jobs. They asked the workers to accept :

1. 60 per cent pay cut

2. Reduction of leave from thirty-six (36) days to six (6) days

3. A working week of six days (8 hours/day shift = 48 hours/week)

When the workers refused, Airtel decided that its Call Centres and other places these staff work should be closed and new staff recruited. When on September 30, 2011, on the eve of our country’s independence anniversary, the staff reported for work, they were shocked to find their offices shut.

Since Airtel and its partners in the enslavement of Nigerians decided to close the offices, the NLC will ensure they remain shut. The Labour Movement will not allow Airtel to do business in Nigeria if it denies workers their fundamental human rights including that of unionization which is guaranteed under Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution.

The NLC advises Airtel Network and its collaborators to return to the negotiation table and allow the Mediator it approved, to resolve all matters otherwise, it will face with industrial actions by the NLC and its affiliates.

It is inconceivable that a company like Airtel which made over 50 per cent of its first year $17billion revenue from Nigeria alone, will seek to place Nigerians on less than half salary and deny them basic rights. This advice to Airtel, also serves as notice to all other local and foreign companies that are enslaving Nigerians that the days of exploitation are at an end.

The NLC calls on the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity to wake up to its duties and defend Nigerians against naked exploitation and injustice by companies like Airtel. Congress also calls on the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to protect, defend and advance the interests of the Nigerian working people rather than allow them to be enslaved in their country by unscrupulous employers and business interests.

While workers intend to resolve these matters through peaceful dialogue and collective bargaining, the acts and actions of the employers will determine Labour’s appropriate reaction.

Thank you.

Courtesy: http://www.nlcng.org/search_details.php?id=293

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MSEU: On the settlement between Maruti Suzuki management and workers representatives

October 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

MARUTI SUZUKI EMPLOYEES UNION (MSEU)
release: 2nd October

After a long struggle since August 29th and many rounds of negotiations, a settlement has been inked between the management of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., IMT Manesar, and the workers representatives on 30th September 2011. The important thing in the settlement is that of the 62 workers, the 18 trainee workers have been taken back on duty. Of the 44 permanent workers, the termination has been revoked for the 15 workers, and now all 44 are on suspension with a legal process of enquiry that will take it course. We on our part reiterate that the pending charge-sheet are false and shall be defeated. The settlement binds us to a salary deduction for the period of struggle with a no-work no-pay rule. However the most important thing in the entire phase of standoff is the strength of the workers as a united force, which still stands unfazed and we shall come back in struggle and on duty.

With this settlement, the management-worker disagreement ends for the interim. We shall carry forth our part of the duty of production, and also ask the management to keep its promise, as set in the settlement, that it shall not take any action on the workers with bad faith or with vengeance. We thank all the central and independent trade unions, the workers in the Gurgaon-Dharuhera-Manesar-Bawal belt, and from across the country and beyond, as well as individuals concerned with our struggle, who have stood by us and lend us support in various ways. It is this strength and our unity that stands unwavering with us which is the inspiration we hold on for the time to come.

Maruti Suzuki Employees Union

President: Sonu Kumar
General Secretary: Shiv Kumar

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The Hypocrisy of the ‘Poverty Line’: Seven times below the Stipulated Minimum Wage!

September 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights
26th September 2011

PUDR wishes to draw public attention to the recent controversy where Planning Commission informed the Supreme Court that anyone earning more than Rs 32 in urban and Rs 26 in rural areas per day is considered above the poverty line. Article 43 of India’s Constitution lays down that “(t)he state shall endeavour to secure by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities”. India’s low ranking in major human development indices and the fact that an overwhelming majority of the population continue to be denied this conceptualisation of what would be considered a “fair wage”, raises disturbing questions with regard to the official standpoint on poverty.

In 1957 at the 15th Indian Labour Conference moves were made towards setting down norms for fixing Minimum Wage, a euphemism for a “living wage.’’ The 15th ILC recommended that in the first place the standard working class family should be taken to mean husband, wife and two children below the age of 14 yrs. Second, minimum food requirement should be calculated on the basis of 2700 calories daily per adult man, 2160 for woman and 1620 for the child. Further clothing requirement of 72 yards for a family per annum would be added while housing allowance corresponding to the minimum area provided for under the governments industrial housing schemes. Lastly fuel, lighting and other items of expenditure should constitute 20 percent of the total Minimum Wage.

While the Government did not accept these recommendations, Supreme Court approved these norms through its judgement in the case of U.Unichoyi v. State of Kerala (AIR 1962 SC 12) and thereby acquiring the force of law behind it. The apex court through its judgement in Workmen v. Reptakos Brett & Co Ltd (AIR 1992 SC 504) added a sixth norm – 25 percent of the total Minimum Wage was supposed to cover children’s education, medical treatment, recreation etc. The Court observed that these six norms would be nothing more than Minimum Wage at “subsistence level” which the workers must get “at all times and under all circumstances”.

Adherence to the six norms, let alone the five norms laid down by the 15th ILC, has been followed in breach. As a “living wage”, at current wage rates declared under MWA, comes to Rs 247 per day for unskilled. Rs 32 touted by the Planning Commission as “below poverty line” is less than seven times the MW which itself is a “subsistence wage”. Thus MW is seven times that of BPL rate. What this implies is that mass of our people are being robbed of their right to life by artificial constructions of poverty line. PUDR reiterates that the letter and spirit of Article 43 which forms part of the Directive Principles of State Policy be the basis for providing basic requirement to all citizens of India so that their right to a life of dignity and liberty can be ensured.

Harish Dhawan and Paramjeet Singh
Secretaries PUDR

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Maruti-Suzuki: The Realpolitik of Managerial Intransigence

September 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Ankit Mandal

Can the Maruti management’s stubbornness be explained only by its unwillingness to allow workers to have their union? This seems doubtful. Unions in India in themselves do not pose such a grave threat for managements. There must be something more to it.

Rather, it reflects a bourgeois resoluteness to bring the long pending demand for institutionalisation of the changes in the labour regime to the centre-stage of policymaking. Changes in the labour regime – casualisation and contractualisation that neoliberalism intensified have not yet been codified completely, which frequently puts managements in legal predicaments, allowing unions to pose ‘legitimate’ demands. A recent Supreme Court judgement which ordered regularisation of contract labourers employed in airports demonstrates the lag between the industrial reality and the legal framework.

In the past decade, the agenda of labour reforms could not be pushed ahead partly because of political compulsions (UPA I was supported by the left parties) and partly due to economic conundrum (the global crisis) in which the UPA regimes found themselves in.

The Maruti management’s determination is not coming from its own competitive need; rather it is representing the general will of the bourgeoisie in India. Not anyone could have acted in this manner. The central role of the automobile sector in the present phase of capitalist development and Maruti’s overwhelming leadership in this particular sector puts it at the helm of the bourgeois class.

At least, it is hard to deny that this sector has been in the forefront of demanding labour reforms. The recent statements from the Automobile Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMAI) and the Society of Indian Automobiles Manufacturers (SIAM) testify this. These associations have been emphasising that labour reforms are crucial for the growth in the automotive industry.

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Ex-President Pawan Goenka : “Labour reforms is high on agenda of SIAM for quite some years. We don’t have any policy on laying-off during slowdown. …We have made several presentations to the Ministry of Heavy Industries, but no serious discussion has happened yet on what could be done… One thing is certain that something has to happen. Otherwise, it will have serious impact on the sector.”

“The rigidity in labour laws has led companies to increasingly resort to outsourcing and contracting of labour. To be very precise, the need of the hour is flexible labour reforms,” General Motors India vice president P Balendran had said.

SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur said the law should give “flexibility” on taking disciplinary actions even against a single person.

“We believe that employment will get a boost by labour reforms which is the need at the moment,” Srivats Ram, president, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) told.

The Haryana government is clearly backing the Maruti management and is not at all showing any sympathy to the workers. Haryana Labour Minister Shiv Charan Lal Sharma says, “How can it be possible for the management to take back workers against whom an FIR has been lodged and (criminal) cases have been filed”. Haryana Labour Commissioner Satwanti Ahlawat says, “During the talks, it came to notice that there is a clear intention of few persons, backed by some political support, who want to mislead workers,”.

However, even if tomorrow the Maruti management agrees to workers’ demands in toto (which is doubtful), it has achieved what it had to – it has already succeeded in bringing the state in for labour reforms. The central government has (Sep 21) agreed to set up a National Automotive Board as a nodal agency for the issues relating to this industry within 2-3 months, and that “Labour laws or in fact any law is not sacrosanct or permanent. Labour laws will have to change with time. If the industry feels so, the Labour Ministry will look into it.”

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Video: Dharna in Support of Maruti Suzuki Workers (Sep 22)

September 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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Stop all your shameless anti-labor activities: Japanese Unions tell Suzuki

September 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Mr. SUZUKI Osamu,
Chairman and President of Suzuki Motor Corporation

On behalf of National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba (Doro-Chiba) and National Coordinating Center of Labor Unions (NCCLU), we send you a letter of protest and request.

First of all, we demand you stop immediately all outrageous and anti-labor actions, such as dismissal, job suspension, lock-out and others, which Maruti Suzuki, your subsidiary, is practicing under your direction against numerous workers whom you employed.

We are informed that your company has made “a remarkable development” as to hold a half of the car market shares in India. Further it is recently reported that you are now planning to construct a new factory to increase your domination over car production and market.

We’d like to ask you who do you think have contributed to all of your recent achievement. Was it possible for you without those workers who have devoted their toil and sweat to the car production even under low wage, long working hours, scarce time to rest and only few holidays?

It is universally established and recognized right for workers to organize their own labor union. Serious and enthusiastic international attention and solidarity of working class is now focused upon Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) workers who have risen up for an independent labor union to bring a change to the worst working condition at the forefront of 2 million workers of Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt.

You must know that workers of the whole world including Japanese workers of course are terribly furious at the outrageous repression of your company on the workers of MSEU, shameless revenge on workers’ protest: numerous dismissals, job suspension, lock-out since the end of August, forceful demand of signing a “good conduct bond” (an attempt of depriving workers of all right of resistance) and replacement of those dissident workers who refused to sign with scabs, or strike breakers, etc.

We strongly urge you to stop all these shameless anti-labor activities and to accept the following demands of MSEU workers:
1) Put an end to lock-out immediately and stop to force workers to sign a “good conduct bond”!
2) Reinstate all dismissed workers and punished workers!
3) Drop all accusation against MSEU workers!
4) Recognize labor rights of irregularly-employed workers and make them all regular employment!
5) Recognize the right of workers to organize themselves in labor union!
6) We heatedly condemn the outrageous arrestment carried out against President, General Secretary and another worker on Sep. 18.
Set these arrested union leaders at liberty, immediately!

Your written answer to these demand are expected to be sent to the following address:
“Doro-Chiba:
DC Kaikan Bldg. 3F, 2-8 Kaname-cho Chuou-ku, Chiba city, Chiba prefecture 260-0017, Japan”

September 22, 2011

National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba
National Coordinating Center of Labor Unions

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Maruti Workers’ Movement: Resisting Exploitation And Defending Democracy

September 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

CPIML Liberation

The workers’ struggle at the Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant has, once again, exposed the ugly and exploitative underbelly of liberalised ‘growth’. The intrepid struggle of young workers there is a glaring reminder that in the celebrated industrial enclaves of the national capital region, profit margins are extracted by abuse of contract labour laws, relentlessly exploitative work conditions – and above all by the brute suppression of the basic democratic right to organise and unionise. It is bringing home the fact that the Government of Haryana is treating the workers’ legally mandated right to unionise as disruptive; while it is condoning and even defending the flagrantly illegal lockout by the management!

Since the Maruti workers’ strike was defeated in 2000, the management had allowed only a pocket union to function. In the past few years, the automobile industry has chosen to cope with recession by imposing even more exploitative work conditions and even more restricted democracy. This may be the reason why many recent instances of workers’ resistance and severe repression have been witnessed in the automobile sector – at Honda in 2005, at Pricol in 2009, at Rico in 2009 followed by the workers’ strike in Gurgaon, and at Maruti in 2011.

A majority of the Maruti workers are contract workers, most of them skilled – who are paid less than half the salary for the same work, and denied various benefits. This pattern of cutting costs by employing contract labour (in violation of the labour laws) has increasingly become the norm, not only in the private sector but even in the public sector. At the Maruti Manesar struggle, a remarkable feature is the unity between the permanent and contract workers.

Some months back, the workers at Maruti’s Manesar plant had formed an independent union of their own – the MSEU (Maruti Suzuki Employees Union) – to voice their grievances over the severely exploitative work conditions. When the management dismissed and suspended the MSEU leaders in June 2011, the workers went on a strike that lasted 13 days. The strike ended with an understanding that the Haryana Government and Maruti management would recognise the MSEU, take back the dismissed workers, and refrain from further victimisation. Instead, in late August, the MSEU’s application for registration was turned down on technical grounds. On the heels of this rejection, the management swung into action. Workers were told that they could enter the factory premises only if they signed a ‘good conduct bond’ – thereby signing away their right to protest in any form. Scores of workers – all active in the formation of the union – were suspended and dismissed.

Workers refused to sign the ‘good conduct bond’ and began a dharna. Ever since, the gates of the factory have been encircled by hundreds of policemen behind a barricade. The bond itself is absolutely illegal, and the management’s action amounts to an illegal lockout. Yet, the Haryana Government has, throughout, sided with the management against the workers. During negotiations, three top MSEU office bearers were arrested after they refused to relent till all dismissed/suspended workers were taken back. Haryana Labour Minister Shiv Charan Lal Sharma defended the arrest, accusing workers of being ‘adamant’ in their demand that all dismissed and suspended workers be reinstated. The Haryana Labour Commissioner has actually made the indefensible claim that the ‘Good Conduct Bond’ is legal, while echoing the MSI management’s allegation that the MSEU and the workers’ struggle is the handiwork of ‘outside’ elements. Meanwhile, workers in other Maruti factories in the region, as well as workers in the entire Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt have shown great solidarity with the Maruti workers’ struggle.

The young, skilled workers who are at the frontline of the sustained agitation at the Maruti plant are the emerging face of a new chapter of the working class movement in India. Many of them have strong roots in rural Haryana and western UP. Their struggle is a challenge to the two foremost (and illegal) offensives on workers’ rights by liberalisation and corporate capital – contractualisation of labour and denial of the right to unionise.

The Maruti workers’ movement is not just a trade union struggle. Their struggle for the right to organise, unionise and protest against exploitative conditions is a crucial, and welcome, aspect of the struggle to defend democracy in India today.

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CPI (Maoist)’s letter to civil liberties organisations

September 19, 2011 by 2 Comments

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
Bihar-Jharkhand-North Chhattisgarh-UP Territorial Regional Committee
1st September 2011

Red salute to all the members of PUCL, PUDR and all the justice loving intellectuals!

This is to inform you that on 2nd March, 2011, Niyamat Ansari of village Jerua, PO Manika, District Latehar (Jharkhand) was awarded the death penalty as per the regulations/procedure of our lower level committee. As Niyamat Ansari and Bhukhan Singh, were working in close association with Gram Swaraj Sanstha and Jean Dreze, member of the Central Vigilance Committee of NREGA, some intellectuals across the entire state and country have in one voice criticized the CPI (Maoist) party for this incident. Along with this a fact finding team was constituted under the leadership of Jean Dreze in which some of the intellectuals who support our movement were included. Nandlal Singh, Gokhul Basant, Aruna Roy were part of this team. Following this in reaction one of the members of our lower level committee without applying his mind put up posters asking for action against these intellectual friends in our people’s court. Also some words were used in a pamphlet, which were nowhere near correct, as citizens can express their reaction even on any right action of ours. It is their right to express their opposition in response. Even in such a situation our organisation does not believe in taking any such action. Therefore in this matter, with the most heart-felt self- criticism we take back the decree issued by our lower committee members and apologize to all the justice loving intellectuals for these mistakes. Also no action will be taken on Bhukhan Singh for the time being and the lower level committee too has been prohibited from taking any such action.

Now the question is why was Niyamat Ansari awarded the death penalty. On this matter too several facts have been provided by the lower level committee. But nevertheless we have not reached a conclusion, as a team has been constituted to do a fact finding on the above incident. We assure you people that we will do an in depth fact finding in this matter and will try to present the truth behind this incident at the earliest.

With revolutionary greetings.
Spokesperson.
Manas

Filed Under: DIARIES Tagged With: , ,
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