Maruti resumes production at Manesar

Even as the strike at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar unit entered its twelfth day, the auto major resumed production and rolled out 350 cars from the facility in Haryana.

The company re-inducted 220 workers at the plant on Tuesday, taking the overall strength of the workforce at Manesar to 400. Yesterday, the Manesar plant had started with 180 workers, it said. “They were from among those who were not participating in the strike,” MSIL said in a statement. “The number of workers went up to 400 on Tuesday. All of them had stayed away from the strike.”

Overall, 2,100 vehicles were manufactured on Tuesday across MSIL’s four plants in Gurgaon and Manesar. This included 480 units of premium hatchback Swift that has seen robust demand since its launch in August this year. The company has over 100,000 bookings for the car. At the current level of production, the company is utilising around 42 per cent of its installed capacity. The firm claimed partial production has started at vendor Suzuki Powertrain India Limited (SPIL). However, Suzuki Powertrain Trade Union claimed that the management was spreading false information. “No work is on at SPIL,” said union president Sube Singh Yadav. “Some cleaning work is going on at the plant overseen by supervisors.”

Talks facilitated by the Haryana government between the management and the protesting workers at Manesar entered its second day, but they yielded no consensus.

An estimated 8,000 workers at the three subsidiaries – MSIL’s Manesar plant, Suzuki Powertrain India Limited and Suzuki Motorcycle India Private Limited — have been on strike since October 7 demanding the induction of 1,100 contract workers who they claimed the company had laid off during the 33-day-long standoff last month. The company has termed the reinstatement of workers a “non-issue”, as employees were to be taken back as production was ramped up at the plant. The workers have additionally demanded re-instatement of 44 regular employees who had been suspended during the strike last month.