Maruti units grapple with labour woes

5,000 workers from three more facilities join the stir; Gurgaon plant employees may join.

The workers’ union at Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has threatened to go on strike if the management of MSIL does not agree to the demands of the protesting workers at the Manesar plant.

“The managing director of our company is in Japan. He is likely to meet us in the morning and we will present the proposal of the Manesar workers to them. The decision to go on strike will be taken after that meeting,” said Kuldeep, general secretary, Maruti Suzuki Kamgaar Union (Muku).

MUKU has members mostly from the Gurgaon plant of MSIL. The Gurgaon facility accounts for 75 per cent of the total vehicles produced. Since the labour trouble crippled production at the Manesar unit, the MSIL management had shifted part of the production of the company’s best-selling model, Swift, to make up for the loss in production due to the unrest at Manesar.

MSIl currently rolls out around 900,000 units per annum from its three plants in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt. Apart from the Swift, A-Star and SX4, all other models that the company sells are manufactured in Gurgaon. If MUKU members go ahead with the strike, it could severely affect operations.

A senior executive at MSIL said they had not received any communication from MUKU. “We are not going to hold talks with the workers. If they want to resume work they have to sign the ‘Good Conduct Bond’,” he said.

Shiv Kumar, general secretary, Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU), said they had held talks with the Gurgaon union and the talks were productive. “The union of the Gurgaon plant is considering going on a strike, too. We are all trying to come together.”

D L Sachdeva, general secretary, All India Trade Union Congress, met the union leader of the Gurgaon plant this evening and said the talks were “very positive”. “I met the union leader in the evening and they said if the management is inconsiderate towards the workers at Manesar, they too will join the strike.”

Today around 5,000 workers from three factories —Suzuki Casting, Suzuki Motorcycle India Private Limited and Suzuki Powertrain India Limited — in the Manesar area went on an indefinite strike to show solidarity with the Manesar workers.

The loss suffered by MSIL since the start of the labour unrest has been estimated to be about 10,260 units at over Rs 510 crore till September 9.