Maruti rolls out 200 cars from Manesar unit amid strike

Even as no solution emerged on day 13 of the strike at the three facilities of Suzuki India, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) on Wednesday claimed it rolled out 200 vehicles from its Manesar facility.

The company is an emailed statement said it re-inducted another 200 workers at the Manesar factory, taking the total strength of the workforce to 600. Overall, 1,850 vehicles were produced across the company’s five plants in Gurgaon and Manesar. This included 300 units of the Swift. The company has over 100,000 bookings for the car.

However, talks facilitated by the Haryana government between the management and the protesting workers at Manesar remained inconclusive.

Sube Singh Yadav, president, Suzuki Powertrain India Employee Union, described the situation as “grim”. “The attitude of the management is not to have a solution. No headway is being reached through the talks,” he said.

He, however, stated contrary to Maruti’s position, that no work had begun at the plant.

The company claimed partial production had started at vendor Suzuki Powertrain India Limited (SPIL), which supplies diesel engines and transmissions.

The company had to suspend production at the Gurgaon plant last week on Friday and Saturday due to non-availability of the components from Suzuki Powertrain India Limited, (SPIL).

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 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, however, 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.