Students’ Solidarity With Maruti Workers
A report by AISA. September 6, 2011
On 3 September, a team of some 70 students from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia formed a solidarity team to visit the Maruti workers who are on dharna against an llegal lockout at the Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant. The visit had been organised by the All India Students’ Association (AISA).
When the busload of students reached the site of the strike, the 2000 workers at the dharna site leapt up to greet them, waving scores of red flags and shouting slogans.
The Maruti-Suzuki authorities have transformed the whole factory into an iron curtained ghetto where all the entrances were sealed with corrugated sheets, with private security guards and security cameras and video-cameras watching the workers’ movement. Two police vans, (vans provided by Maruti) were always at the site and the police officers were seen taking refreshments from the security guards employed by the authorities.
The leader of the workers’ independent union (MARUTI SUZUKI EMPLOYEES UNION - MSEU), Comrade Sonu Gurjar gave us a brief summary of the struggle, and invited students to address the workers. Sandeep Singh (National President, AISA) addressed the workers. Kavita Krishnan and Prabhat Kumar, central committee members of the CPI(ML) also addressed the workers. Students sang revolutionary songs and the poet Vidrohi recited his poetry.
The present struggle of the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) is against the illegal lockout, termination of 11 workers and suspension of 38 workers. Since 29 August, the Maruti management has declared that only those workers who sign a ‘Good Conduct Form’ (which denies the workers the minimum rights of grievance redressal through protests and strikes) can enter the factory. Near the factory’s main gate, a recorded message is played repeatedly, announcing that workers can enter only if they consent to signing the ‘Good Conduct form.’
Copies of the 29 August notice are pasted outside the walls of the factory. The entire workforce of the Manesar plant has refused to sign away their rights, and have demanded that the ‘Good Conduct form’ be revoked and the (undeclared) lockout called off.
Groups of workers attend the dharna in ‘shifts.’ As we waited for the workers of the evening shift to arrive, student activists interacted with groups of workers. They eagerly shared with us details of their working conditions. Talking to them, a clear outline emerged of the inhuman conditions in which the workers of one of the most prosperous industries of the country have to work. We were told that
· The production capacity of the factory is 1200 cars per day where as the workers are forced to produce 1400-1470 cars per day in the factory, which makes the production conditions stressful and inhuman for the workers.
· All workers have to pass through a 3 year training period during which no labour laws are applicable. At the end of the 3-year period they receive uniforms, and are supposed to be made permanent. Instead, many of them remain frozen as ‘trainees’ and their permanent appointment is delayed.
· Working period of 8 hours exclude lunch and tea breaks. The workers are provided with a recess of 7 minutes between 2 hours of continuous work. In this limited time the worker has to have refreshments as well as visit the toilet.
· The electronic attendance machine installed by the administration marks a worker absent for half a day and cuts his salary even if he is one minute late and continues to work through that half day.
· There is no provision of casual leave or sick leave and if a worker goes on holiday for 1 day the amount deducted is Rs. 1500, for 2 days it is Rs. 2200, for three days it is Rs. 7000-8000.
· If a worker goes on holiday the amount deducted is 1500 but if he works overtime on a holiday then he will be paid Rs. 250 only.
· There is no proper health facility. Only if a worker is admitted to a hospital for 24 hrs only then the company reimburses 80% of the expenditure. No reimbursements are offered for medical expenditure on family members.
· Conveyance is a major problem, as the buses though apparently provided by the company, charge fare from workers.
· The management stints on safety equipment. Gloves become unusable soon – but they are made to turn the gloves inside out and re-use, resulting in rashes and allergies.
· Against all such inhuman conditions, the workers at the Maruti’s Manesar plant sustained a 13-day long strike from 4 June-17 June. The right to form an independent union emerged as the key demand of this strike, even as the management refused to recognise any union except the pro-management Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union. The strike ended when the company agreed to take back 11 terminated workers. In principle the management also agreed that an independent plant-level union could be allowed as long as it had no ‘outsiders.’ This time around, in August, the management issued the ‘Good Conduct’ notice, amounting to an illegal lockout. The workers have been on dharna ever since.
· The workers who are inside the plant are brought to the work site in covered trucks and are under continuous surveillance of the police. The Maruti authorities have brought workers from other plants and trying to run the production but production in these unusual conditions are associated with life risks and other hazards. Some workers reported that under similar situations in 2006, six workers who were brought by the authorities from outside died inside the plant in an accident. The death of these workers was completely erased from public notice by surreptitious means by the Maruti authorities.
Towards evening, the workers had to shift their dharna tent to across the road, as the management had obtained a court injunction against any protest within 100 metres of the factory.
As the evening shift of workers gathered, once again, there was enthusiastic slogan shouting. Kuldeep Janghu, General Secretary of the Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (which holds sway in the Gurgaon plant of Maruti-Suzuki), came to address the workers. He reported that he had received a letter proposing talks on 5 September to resolve the dispute. Students again greeted the new batch of workers before leaving in the late evening.
Most of the workers at the Manesar plant are young, educated and skilled. These young men have sustained two major agitations within a span of a few months – in the face of severe odds. The road ahead is certainly not smooth for them, but their spirit is inspiring and contagious.
Ironically, while workers’ right to unionise is under attack, the bosses’ corporate cartels are getting great recognition from governments! For example, in the past few days, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) have been loudly demanding ‘flexi’ labour laws and the right to lay off even permanent employees during slowdowns! The Maruti management’s lockout is clearly illegal and a blatant instance of unfair labour practice – yet the Congress Government in Haryana as well as at the centre are silent on such flagrant flouting of labour laws.
The UPA Government and main opposition NDA have a consensus in favour of doing away with the labour laws that protect workers’ rights. In this backdrop of a countrywide offensive against labour laws, the Maruti Workers’ struggle assumes significance far beyond that of a single factory. Their struggle is a defiant sign of workers’ refusal to surrender the hard-won rights or to relinquish the bare minimum norms of industrial democracy.
All India Students’ Association (AISA)*********
