The following is a statement issued by the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union (MSWU) on 19 July following violence and repression at the Manesar plant yesterday.
The Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) is anguished at the recent developments in Maruti Suzuki plant, IMT Manesar where the management has resorted to anti-worker and anti-Union activities in a pre-planned manner leading to violence and the closure of the factory yesterday.
We have had a long tough struggle with the strong unity of our permanent and contract workers to establish and register our Union last year, and had recently as of April 2012 submitted our Charter of Demands to the management of Maruti Suzuki, and the process of negotiation for wages and other demands was underway. However the management has done its utmost to derail the process since long and is trying to break the back of the spirit of unity of the workers and the legitimacy of the Union.
It is due to this, and continuing with this vindictive attitude and in a pre-planned manner, yesterday, the afternoon of 18thJuly, a supervisor in the shop floor abused and made casteist comments against a dalit worker of the permanent category, which was legitimately protested by the worker. Instead of taking action against the said supervisor, the management immediately suspended the worker concerned without any investigation as was demanded by the workers. When the workers along with Union representatives went to meet the HR to demand against the supervisor and revoke the unjust suspension of the worker, the HR officials flatly refused to hear our arguments, and it was in no mood to resolve the issue amicably.
When the negotiation was going on with the leaders of the Union inside the office, the management called in the entry of hundreds of bouncers on its payroll from outside the plant to attack the workers, and blocked the exit. This is completely an illegal vindictive action in the spirit of conspiracy to corner us into submission even as our demands and methods are legitimate and peaceful. The exit gates were closed by the security on behest of the management and the bouncers brutally attacked the workers with sharp weapons and arms. They joined by some of the managerial staff and police later, beat up a number of workers who have had to be hospitalised with serious injuries. The bouncers, who are anti-social elements on hire, also destroyed company property and set fire to a portion of the factory. The gates were later opened to oust the workers and enforce a lockout by the company.
We have the workers and the company’s welfare in mind and have worked towards it after the resolution of the dispute last year, and to blame the current violence on us is unjust, which should be properly investigated. We are still keen to dialogue with the company and want to sit with the company management and the government labour department to amicably resolve the matter and restore industrial peace in the factory.
Ram Meher
President, Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU)
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
looks like Maruti Sazuki is adopting some Yakuza style management tactics, Burn the company and move it to a less restive place
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We are all behind you in yur struggle. Keep the flag flying. Victory will be yours !!
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Fighting for one’s rights is our birthright. In the same breath let us not forget that due to whatever reason violence erupted at the manesar plant, one life has been lost and so many injured. We need to reflect on what means we are adopting for achieving our ends. This is applicable to both, the State and us Activists.
Krishna
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Fighting for your rights is fully justified and I totally understand how it must feel to be ill treated by the company. All capitalist organisations behave in the most irresponsible way having least respect for workers. It is difficult to determine how the violence started, who instigated it, who passed casteist remarks, etc. But I strongly condemn the killing of the company HR. He could have been the bread winner for the family (a possible condition in case he had a non employed wife). Again to determine whether the management themselves plotted against him, used him for their benefit or whether the agitated workers resorted to such extreme measures, is difficult. All I can say in I very strongly condemn the killing of the professional. Remember what M.K.Gandhi said, an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
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probably Aditya is right. Mody is already inviting maruti in gujarat
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http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/maruti-plant-violence-full-statement-of-workers-union-244992?h_also_see – for knowing why they wanted a pay hike in the first case, iphones have fairly expensive data plans.
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iPhones have expensive data plans and sure enough broadcast media professionals can afford them! You might want to check that link again, my friend.
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I find the whole statement to be a fabrication. Why would Maruti hire ‘bouncers’ and keep them always ready and paid (you need at least 200-300 of them to make any impact) and beat up your own managers (including Japanese managers) and destroy their own cars and shut down their factory?
I do suppose I might have to wait it out till more details emerge but the Union comes out of it looking really bad.
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This statement doesn’t mention any violence done by workers. There was such violence in which a manager was burnt to death and many others had cracked skulls and broken arms. This statement is therefore untruthful to a large extent.
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By publishing this statement without any comment (and conveniently deleting the iPhone message), you show an obvious bias. (See your tag : workers struggle).
Was the Worker Union leader present in the plant ? Then he could have used his iPhone to record evidence of “management goons”. The fact is that these leaders tacitly incite and encourage violence. Doesn’t the loss of life of a manager count ? It counts as Murder in my book. And it is not the first time!
When the employment shifts, as it will under a management bothered about balance sheets above all, it is the workers who will get shafted. Mr Leader will lead someplace else.
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AKM, Luv Kush and dark lord,
Yes there have been comments that raise, what in our opinion are basics about where we stand. We are not obliged to pass such comments.
Let me make two things very clear. In the first place, Kafila is not a free speech forum. We have a political perspective – very broadly speaking. Within that broad perspective – you can call it a bias – we often disagree and sometimes quite vociferously, among ourselves. Often, among fellow Kafila\ites and often with our wider reading public, we seek to have an engaged and informed debate. Most of the big media, especially print (some exceptions apart) has simply purveyed the management’s position. Most reporters have not even bothered to speak to a single worker. As I have often said, unlike dark lord and many others who seem to believe that the corporations are saints (“why would they hire bounders”?), I can tell you from my personal experience as a one-time trade union organizer, they are the biggest crooks for whom nothing matters but their profit. Anybody who has even cared to go to a private factory unit cannot fail to see this. And those who take it upon themselves to lecture us about what managements can and cannot do, without any investigation, are in my opinion worthy of simply being trashed. Please see our ‘Comments Policy’ in this regard (on the About page).
Secondly, I should also say for the benefit of many others who have commented here, that while we do not condone the killing of anyone (and the death of the manager has been really gruesome), this is only the tip of the iceberg. It is a ‘freeze shot’ of a film that has been goin on for very very long. It is like a wife who faces domestic violence for years before she decides, in sheer desperation, to kill her man or dismember him. Please do take a look at some of the post done here on Kafila by Shuddhabrata Sengupta last year (here and here) when the strike in Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar was going on. The report details how viciously exploitative and oppressive the workplace conditions are. The daily humiliation that workers have to face apart from a kind of low grade structural violence, if you please, accumulates over time and bursts forth in moments of crisis and conflict. all you need is a trigger. It is our firm belief that workers who are involved in a daily struggle to make a living do not simply take to violence for the fun of it. Unless they are thrown into a situation of despair, they do not want to throw their life into uncertainty, face repression, police cases, arrests and worse, the possibility of loss of employment.
Many of the commenters are, therefore, right in believing that in publishing the union statement we have simply stated which side we stand on. We do want to follow this up with a more detailed report and analysis soon.
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If Kafila is not a free-speech forum, how do you justify your demands for free speech? Free speech, like charity, should begin at home, no?
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Vijay, Demands for free speech simply mean that I do not support the demand for a ban on voices that oppose my position. They are free and should be free to have their own publications, blogs, websites or public meetings. But that does not mean that I invite all of them to talk what I think is utter nonsense on Kafila. We want a serious debate on issues and not name-calling. So we mercilessly delete comments that express hate-speech for instance, either against any community/ religion/ caste or against more secular formations like class, gender, groups with different sexual preferences and so on. And we don’t think there is a contradiction between the two.
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like!
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We at Kafila also believe that this is only possible if we also combine these critical media practices with sustained, theoretical reflection, which steps back from the immediacy of the moment.
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In this case do not be ashamed to call murderers what they are..murderers even though they may be union leaders or workers you sympathise with (as I do).
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Of course. Just like the State, police, judiciary and paramilitary forces are murderers when they execute citizens, cause custodial deaths or fight wars – internal or external. Murder is murder, I agree.
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Exactly..murderers should be explicitly called murderers, whatever cloak they try to shroud their act under
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Providing a forum for the oppressed, especially when the MSM does not provide them enough opportunities to do so, is perfectly fine. And of course Kafila is not a free speech forum : it exists to propound a certain point of view.
Now the question is: does anybody who claims to be oppressed automatically qualify for support ? Can any crime be excused merely viewed through the lens of past oppression ?
In this case, Mr Meher’s usage of an iconic high end cellphone IS an issue: it places him far outside the pale of the oppressed he claims to represent and into the sphere of the professional politico. Secondly, nobody can deny the usage of goons by management, probably even by Maruti. But it does beggar belief that they would hire goons not to beat up workers/union leaders, but to burn down their own property and kill senior management.
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Nikhil, Nobody to my knowledge has justified the killing. It is a straw man that many people are now erecting in order to de-leigimize the workers’ movement. In my own comment above, I have referred to it as gruesome. But that does not call for anybody pre-judging the issue as to how it all happened – that would simply mean taking the management’s version, lock stock and barrel. And we have reasons to believe that it is not a straightforward management but one that has driven the workers to desperation. I will therefore refrain from psiing any judgement at this stage. But you are of course free to believe what you do:)
AKM, I think we live in two different world and have two different languages. To you a worker must be hunger stricken and sickly and perhaps, in tattered clothes – for the ‘philanthrope’ in you to wake up and recognize his or her oppression. Well, the good news is that no one today expects any philanthropy in this battle for dignity. People fight and you and I have to take our stands. Let me tell you that iphone or no iphone, there is no justification whatsoever for the workers real wages falling, while executives’ emoluments increase in leaps and bounds (in real terms) and the company nets unprecedented profits. On top of falling real wages, there is the daily indignity of workers being treated like the scum of the earth. As far as your innocent ‘does anybody who claims to be oppressed qualify for support’ is concerned, all I have to say is each of us must exercise our own judgement. I have taken my decision and so it seems have you. I have only one point here: if you think this is ‘past oppression’ please go and visit the Maruti plant – or any other factory of your choice and see for yourself.
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Dear Aditya, I spoke to one of the web editors at NDTV and she confirmed that the line “Sent from my iPhone” wasn’t part of the text sent by Mr Meher / MSWU. The correspondent who forwarded the statement to the web desk happens to use an iPhone. The line has now been removed: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/maruti-plant-violence-full-statement-of-workers-union-244992 But as you said iPhone or no iPhone…
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Thanks for that! All the time I spent searching for that iphone comment!
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whatever may be the logical analysis the foundation is violence has to be condemned unequivocally coming from all quarters. State, Corporates, Activists, Workers, Community members so on and so forth, . It is a fact that we are a violent race all humans. But that should not stop us from striving for a less violent world.
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My previous comment asking for the workers’ side of the story on the death of the HR manager has not been published. For what reason I don’t know. To my knowledge it didn’t contain any “utter nonsense”.
While I agree with the point by AKM about a claim of oppression not being a ground from immunity from all moral responsibility for violence, I find the iPhone issue a non issue.
1) There is no reason to say that the organizer is as poor as the workers, in the bigger unions the union leaders are not employees at all. They are rather from outside the company and organizing workers is their full time job.
2) Lets say the union leader is as poor as the workers. Is there any reason that the union should not provide him with an iPhone so that he may better carry out the duties of the union? Surely though the members are poor, the union wouldn’t be so poor that they couldn’t afford an iPhone.
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Mr Pandit, when was the last time you used the term ‘murderer’ to condemn State agents killing Maoists for instance, or Kashmiri insurgents? And let’s not jump the gun – let an investigation establish some facts and evidence before we begin the name-calling. Surely, that’s not too much to ask?
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I am absolutely convinced the people who killed those unfortunates in the unnamed graves in Kashmir, the people who slaughter innocent villagers in Chattisgarh or the people who kill an innocent manager doing his job in a factory are all murderers.What investigation do you need..dont the dead speak?
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Dear Aditya: As a former HR practitioner in a global manufacturing company and having seen labor relations across the world, its quite tragic to see this divide of workers and managers still existing in India. As technology has evolved, even the so called ‘technician jobs’ have become largely push-button or at least less physical (ex. conveyor belts replacing human mules on assembly lines). Furthermore with more exposure workers, like any other employee segment, now aspire for faster career growth and better lifestyle. Progressive companies oblige this by giving better benefits like medical and insurance and in some cases even stock-options to incentivize the sense of ownership. To build the right culture separate canteens are discontinued.
And they do it not for charity but simply it makes economic sense to keep your workforce happy as it costs a tiny fraction of the opportunity cost if they are unhappy. Ex. in Manesar to keep all employees happy for years it would have cost a paltry Rs. 50 cr vs. the +Rs 1000 cr loss they now look to fill along with the loss of reputation / wiping off share holder value.
Secondary strategy that drives MNCs to do more for workers is that most of them have realized that the Indian political trade union leaders serve far too vested interests vs. the interest of their co-workers or the company. So to keep the outside influence at bay they try to encourage dialogue through internal union. You may call it seeding loyalist, but by my experience, if the entire workforce is treated with respect and cared after, there’s usually no need of bribing or nurturing loyalists or any such nefarious activities.
The only point of contention is the entire contract worker piece, where also progressive practices encourage to see them as a ready pipeline for permanent employees and reduce cost of recruitment / on-boarding drives. If recession doesn’t allow more permanent staff hire, they are at-least given all easy benefits and equality (example accident insurance is never utilized more than 1%..its the mindset that prevents from extending them to all workers).
What i find surprising is that why a company like Maruti, with its global outlook, wouldn’t do any of these things. It’s simply idiotic in today’s world not to invest in your people who are the unique source of competitive advantage at every level. I learnt this the best from the general secretary of the internal union of a manufacturing company (to increase co-operation and exchange of dialogue this company encouraged its union leaders to teach the management new-hires) who told that during 2001 recession the workers voluntarily worked 2 hours extra for more than a month to increase production and help the company’s balance sheet without any overtime.
If only Maruti and the scores of short-sighted employers in India did / do the same…
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