[vikrantj]

This is todays Economic times

MSIL strike now spreads to other plants. Workers in Suzuki powertrain and Suzuki motorcycle also go on strike. All these factories are in gurgaon-menes belt.

[vikrantj]

^^ Here is the full news

Maruti labour unrest spreads to Suzuki units - The Economic Times


NEW DELHI: The ongoing labour unrest at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar facility spread to three companies of Suzuki Motors in India on Wednesday, with more than 4,000 workers going on a flash strike in support of their colleagues at the country's largest car maker.

The protests stalled production at engine units of Suzuki Powertrain India and Suzuki Castings in Manesar and two-wheeler unit of Suzuki Motorcycle India in Gurgaon from Wednesday afternoon.

"All the workers of different shifts at these three companies have gone on strike since this afternoon in support of MSI's ( Maruti Suzuki India) Manesar plant workers," Suzuki Powertrain India Employees Union President Sube Singh Yadav said.

Though the immediate trigger for protests was not known, union leaders said that remarks of Maruti Chairman Osamu Suzuki, that the management will not accept any indiscipline, has sparked a strong reaction among the staff. Also, the company's decision to sack five more workers in Manesar on Tuesday on disciplinary grounds and hiring of 100 staff to replace the existing workforce has led to resentment.

The workers have asked Maruti management to end the 16-day standoff with Manesar workers, who have so far refused to sign a good conduct bond that the management has set as a prerequisite for entering the factory premises.

"The company is being run by workers and Maruti produced around 13 lakh cars in FY11, which is 30% more than its installed capacity of 10 lakh. Driven by workers initiatives, the company managed to reach its historically high production, but now they are subject to extreme adverse conditions just because they are demanding their basic rights," said Sonu Gujjar, president of workers body of Maruti's car assembly plant in Manesar.

Suzuki, the sixth largest Japanese carmaker with 54.4% in Maruti, is facing a possible shutdown of its main plant in India. The Gurgaon facility makes some of its top selling vehicles such as Alto, WagonR and Eeco and employs nearly 4,500 staff.

The abrupt stoppage of production at Manesar, which makes critical diesel engines, may soon impact production of diesel variants of Ritz and Dzire cars made at Gurgaon plants.

"Maruti may be heading for a major disaster if the diesel engine plant of Suzuki Powertrain stops production. Diesel cars are in high demand and this will hit sales, which has seen sharp decline in past quarter," said an auto analyst. Suzuki employs about 2,500 workers at its Manesar plant, while the two-wheeler facility that rolls out 1,200 motorcycles and scooters every day, has 1,400 workers at its plant in Gurgaon.

[ottocycle]

It's seems to be getting uglier.

Violence at Maruti's Manesar plant, 5 injured - The Times of India

GURGAON: The labour unrest at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant turned violent today when a group of supervisors were attacked on their way to work, with five of them sustaining injuries.

According to the police, one Dhiraj Soni, a worker at the Manesar plant of the company, has been detained in relation to the incident.

"A medical examination of two injured employees is being carried out now and an FIR will be filed after that," a police official told PTI.

Another three supervisors that sustained injuries in the attack were admitted to Artemis Hospital here and later discharged after first aid, the police said.

In a statement, the company condemned the attack on its supervisors, saying, "This was another desperate action by the striking workers, using violence and fear."

"By such violent acts, the striking workers have polluted the environment in Manesar. Such actions are damaging for the industrial climate in the Manesar belt. This will destroy jobs and prosperity in the region," it said.

The incident took place this morning when a group of 11 supervisors were stopped on their way to work by a group of people near the factory of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India's Manesar plant and were allegedly attacked.

Representatives of the agitating workers at MSI's Manesar plant could not be reached for comments, as repeated calls remained unanswered.

The MSI management and workers have been locked in a standoff since August 29, when the management prevented workers from entering the factory premises unless they signed a 'good conduct' bond, after alleged sabotage and deliberate compromise on the quality of cars being produced.

The bond required the workers to declare they would "not resort to go slow, intermittent stoppage of work, stay- in-strike, work-to-rule, sabotage or otherwise indulge in any activity, which would hamper normal production in the factory".

In support of their colleagues at MSI's Manesar plant, workers at three factories operated by two of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp's subsidiaries located in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt -- Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd and Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd -- have been on strike since Wednesday afternoon.

[.sushilkumar]

i am Smelling some thing Fishy here on the part of MSIL Management. Workers has each and every right to protest against something which they feel is not correct. story is some thing else IMO. All we have seen so far is one side of coin only. No worker will sabotage the quality of car for fun. some thing is seriously wrong In these plants. 1000 + people can not be wrong at same time.

[rajeev k]

The labour unrest at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar Plant ook a violent turn today with 11 people sustaining injuries in a scuffle, while the company announced that its two main plants will be shut tomorrow due to engine supply constraints. As per ET.


Maruti Suzuki India to shut plants tomorrow; 11 hurt in scuffle - The Economic Times

[sydras]

I was waiting for when a discussion about the strike would start on TBHP. Sad to note that so many folks who care deeply for their cars cannot spare a moment to care for or rather, at least give the workers who toil laboriously at such plants to produce their "dream" car some benefit of doubt.

Maruti has been producing cars non-stop from their factories and have made a hell of a lot of profit over the years but I wonder how inclusive their success story has been. Not very I imagine if there are so many disgruntled workers unified in their protest. Management at maruti might be forcing the workers to work long hours to earn a decent living with no benefits, no future and suppressing all dissent. (A common practice in manufacturing is to pay a worker less for 8 hours in order to force him to work 12 hours for a decent salary. Contract labour is another such tool frequently employed in manufacturing to cheat the workers out of their meager benefits and representation via a union while higher management enjoys all possible perks.)

While sabotaging a vehicle is may not be the best way to protest, if you were in their place with the same economic situation, I wonder if you would've done any differently. (That is why I do not blame striking workers even in critical sectors like medicine and transport. They have no choice but to resort to such measures. Mostly, it's the people that they're striking against who are at fault.)

While I admit that it is wrong to have a defective car reach the customer, wouldn't the blame rest with Maruti QC and not the workers? More importantly, shouldn't the management at Maruti be responsible and shut down production until they're sure that non-defective cars reach the customer? Also, now that the customer is aware, he/she has a choice to cancel the booking. It may not seem like the best move but eventually that might solve the problem i.e. low sales may force maruti to the negotiating table which will eventually result in proper cars being produced.

It's easy to pass judgement for us keyboard warriors from the comfort of our homes. At least for me, having been associated with the manufacturing industry (through family and relations) I can vouch for the fact this is a highly exploitative industry where people at the bottom of the food chain i.e. the workers are the most exploited and paid the least.

[C300]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

As a consumer, should I really bother about the work conditions of the Maruti employees? NO

IMHO as an informed consumer we can not detach ourselves from the working condition of the employees. Tomorrow if MUL starts employing child labour, are we saying that we will still buy their cars?

I agree in many cases its not feasible to investigate the working condition of the employees but if the info is available in the public domain then we should use it.

IMO an informed consumer is the best check against business malpractices.

[drsnt]

believe me, I was born and lived in Haryana for last 32yrs, every major labor unrest is associated with political motive, all companies give "due" consideration to governments and lack of such causes labor unrest.
govt controls all labor unions and their leaders. if it wants the unrest will stop. Suzuki has been in same water before with their 2 wheeler plant and I know the internal story.

As for the production, all other companies are having feast on their strike, expect some surprises in this month sales figures

[.sushilkumar]

It;s official now. MSIL freeze's production in it;s factory . I strongly feel that workers are not getting their Dues and Suzuki is exploiting their workers.

Quoting from TOI
Maruti freezes ops over labour trouble - The Times of India

New Delhi/Manesar: The labour stir at Maruti Suzuki took a turn for the worse as disruption of supplies from group company Suzuki Powertrain-whose workers joined the stir on Wednesday-forced the automaker to call for closure at both Manesar and Gurgaon plants, where it manufactures a majority of its models, on Friday. On Thursday, there were also violent protests in the area.


Maruti has been facing labour unrest since August 29 when it asked workers at Manesar plant to sign a "good conduct bond" before entering the factory. So far, it was making up for the loss of production by using senior staff and some temporary workforce. However, the disruption of supplies from Suzuki Powertrain-which makes diesel engines and transmissions for certain petrol engines-is a setback to Maruti's efforts to maintain operations.


"Supply of components from Suzuki Powertrain is important for Maruti and if the stir continues, the situation will be difficult for the carmaker," a source said. Suzuki Powertrain is 70% owned by Suzuki and the remaining stake is held by Maruti. Powertrain can produce up to 300,000 diesel engines a year. Industry watchers said perhaps after seven years Maruti's Gurgaon plant will be shut down due to a labour issue. With Friday's closure, Maruti's two factories in Haryana will remain shut for three days in a row. While Saturday will be a holiday on account of 'viskwakarma puja', Sunday is a routine holiday. Sources said Maruti's senior management is trying to sort out the labour trouble at Suzuki Powertrain before the next week begins. Workers are not only showing solidarity with Manesar plant agitators, but also making demand over a new wage settlement that is being worked out.


Meanwhile, the company said some supervisors were attacked early this morning. "As many as 11 supervisors were injured in the attack. This was another desperate action by the striking workers, using violence and fear. Three of the injured supervisors were admitted to a hospital at Gurgaon, while eight others were taken to the company's Medical Centre in Manesar," the company said. The Manesar police detained one worker on the complaint of the injured employees.


The company said it produced 220 units of the Swift model from both Manesar and Gurgaon plants. However, the worrying factor is the huge backlog-around 80,000 units-on Swift.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by drsnt

believe me, I was born and lived in Haryana for last 32yrs, every major labor unrest is associated with political motive, all companies give "due" consideration to governments and lack of such causes labor unrest.
govt controls all labor unions and their leaders. if it wants the unrest will stop. Suzuki has been in same water before with their 2 wheeler plant and I know the internal story.

I tend to agree with you. There has been a surfeit of industrial unrest in Haryana. Either all owners are bad, or there is something just not right.

I suspect Haryana may kill and lose the golden geese (plural intended) to places like Sanand.

[myavu]

This is really sad



When will these cars reach respective owners?

Source : Today's TOI Article Window

Regards

Vinu

[Cesc]

Originally Posted by sydras

At least for me, having been associated with the manufacturing industry (through family and relations) I can vouch for the fact this is a highly exploitative industry where people at the bottom of the food chain i.e. the workers are the most exploited and paid the least.

While your comments may be true in general for manufacturing enterprises (more so for informal manufacturing), they are certainly not true for Maruti. I have visited Maruti's manufacturing plant umpteen times and did not witness even a single instance of exploitation of workers. Maruti's manufacturing plants are not sweat-shops and these are not your rag tag workers but people who are well covered by labor laws of this country - which are relatively more in favor of workers than employers - and receive adequate benefits as well.

I have even been to Maruti's vendors' manufacturing facilities (located in Gurgaon) and even there I couldn't see any kind of exploitation.

I am not saying that workers demands are not legitimate - they may or may not be - but I am SURE that they are not a exploited lot.

Originally Posted by drsnt

believe me, I was born and lived in Haryana for last 32yrs, every major labor unrest is associated with political motive, all companies give "due" consideration to governments and lack of such causes labor unrest.
govt controls all labor unions and their leaders. if it wants the unrest will stop.

Absolutely true. Gurgaon/Manesar is a belt controlled by MPs who are completely out of sync with Haryana's CM. There are multiple factors at play here - not all of which can be explained or put down in black and white.

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I tend to agree with you. There has been a surfeit of industrial unrest in Haryana. Either all owners are bad, or there is something just not right.

I suspect Haryana may kill and lose the golden geese (plural intended) to places like Sanand.

Owners of industries in and around Gurgaon are sufferring quite a bit. As if infrastructure woes were not enough. I too feel that we will soon see some of them shifting their facilities out of Gurgaon.

[partha379]

As someone already posted, we are seeing the updates from the management side alone and not much from employee side.

Unfortunately most of us tend to look at strikes/unions as bad, (thanks to past history) but in some cases there might be a valid reason for this. I remember reading a couple of things in the news papers during the last strike.

1) Majority of the workers in the plant are contract labourers, most of these folks have been working there for few years and they have still not been made permanent. Now I can't understand why a company like Maruti will keep the majority of workers are contract labourers as this is one company whose sales are growing and they do have a good market share.

I understand the importance of contract labour to handle some business challenges - but to keep them on contract for so long needs some valid reasons.

2) One of the other demand is to recognise a new union which the management has declined. We don't know why this is, but I don't see any reason why a company can't be allowed to have more unions. We tend to look at most of the unions with suspicion (again rightly so due to past history) but there can also be a case that the existing union office bearers might not be "representing" the workers which leads to the demand for new union.

We are not getting any info on this also.

3) I agree with many of the posters here regarding political motives behind most of these unrests, but truth is that many companies do exploit workers and workers can't fight back without unions. For e.g during recession even software folks wanted to form unions to fight for them - during good times this is not needed as you can shift jobs, but suddenly when the jobs dried up employees found that mgmt is not so "Friendly/Cool" like the old days :-).

So lets not look at all union activities as something bad or something to be avoided.

4) Regarding customers caring for Maruti employees, we should do so. Think of what folks did to avoid child labour issues in Sivakasi (Cracker factories in TN), only when customers started boycotting buying these products things started changing. Same with Foxconn factory that produces iPhones or Nike factory producing shoes - customer protests lead to effective changes.

At the end of the day - happy employees produce better work/products :-). This is good for the employer as well as the customer, hope everyone involved in Maruti understand and accept this.

Just saw @Cesc's post - if someone has seen first hand about the factory conditions I will take his word for it. But I still stand by the need for unions.

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by Cesc

Maruti's manufacturing plants are not sweat-shops and these are not your rag tag workers but people who are well covered by labor laws of this country - which are relatively more in favor of workers than employers - and receive adequate benefits as well.

I have even been to Maruti's vendors' manufacturing facilities (located in Gurgaon) and even there I couldn't see any kind of exploitation.

I am not saying that workers demands are not legitimate - they may or may not be - but I am SURE that they are not a exploited lot.

Agree that Labor laws are more or less in favour of workers but are they implemented fully anywhere. The labor commissioner;s palms In gurgaon are already greased fully by MSIL mgmt IMO. Why commissioner is silent. I have heard of one statement only from him/her which endorses MSIL;s Stand. Did she talked to agitating workers ??

As for sweat factories goes, than exploitation does n;t mean a sweating worker. it can be done by thousand other means . if they are so honest , why they are not making permanent the contract workers ????. As for as i know contract labor is meant for short term manufacturing . is that the case here. workers are working there for 10 + yrs now as contract labors . is it not exploitation. 10 years is not a short term anyway or is it so that contract workers are less hard working than regular one.

Parent suzuki is doing nothing. they are here to make profits with no regard for workers / employees. Unfortunately Our labor minister is happily sitting in his AC room with cash loads in his bank account where as He should be looking into workers grievances and resolution of dispute between workers and MSIL mgmt.

[ramzsys]

If there is status quo, expect i10, figo, vista, manza and the new toyota hatch/sedan sales to zoom.