INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & MEDIA

PROJECT REPORT ON STRIKE IN MARUTI SUZUKI

PRESENTED BY:
PIYUSH CHITLANGIA SNEHA MASKARA MALVIKA SINGH ANKESH ANAND ANSHUL DUBEY SANJEEV KUMAR

GUIDED BY:
PROF. RADHIKA GUPTA

TABLE OF CONTENT
1. COMPANY PROFILE 2. QUICKS FACTS ABOUT COMPANY 3. STRIKE IN MARUTI SUZUKI 3.1 HOW IT ALL STARTED 3.2 WHAT DOES THIS ENTIRE DRAMA POINT TO 3.3 OUTCOME OF THE STRIKE 3.4 CLASSWAR, DEATH, FIRE, MANESAR 4. DIFFICULTIES FOR LABOUR 5. LEARNING FROM STRIKE 6. CONCLUSION 7. REFERNCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to and owe my foremost regards to Prof. Radhika Gupta for giving me an opportunity to carry out this case study on strike at Maruti Suzuki plant under her guidance. This work would not have been possible without her invaluable support and thought provoking comments. It is due to her patient guidance that I have been able to complete the task. Though I have tried out best at the same time I know that there is nothing called perfection so I would like to have all valuable suggestion for future. I dedicate this project to all the people who believe that hard work and creativity needs protection and encouragement.

COMPANY PROFILE

Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL), established in 1981, had a prime objective to meet the
growing demand of a personal mode of transport, which is caused due to lack of efficient public transport system. The incorporation of the company was through an Act of Parliament. Suzuki Motor Company of Japan was chosen from seven other prospective partners worldwide. Suzuki was due not only to its undisputed leadership in small cars but also to commitments to actively bring to MUL contemporary technology and Japanese management practices (that had catapulted Japan over USA to the status of the top auto manufacturing country in the world). at Maruti Udyog Ltd. In 2001, MUL became one of the first automobile companies, globally, to be honored with an ISO 9000:2000 certificate. The production/ R&D is spread across 297 acres with 3 fullyintegrated production facilities. The MUL plant has already rolled out 4.3 million vehicles. The fact says that, on an average two vehicles roll out of the factory in every single minute. The company takes approximately 14 hours to make a car A license and a Joint Venture agreement were signed between Government of India and Suzuki Motor Company (now Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan) in Oct 1982. The objectives of MUL, then are as cited below:

Modernization of the Indian Automobile Industry. Production of fuel-efficient vehicles to conserve scarce resources. Production of large number of motor vehicles which was necessary for economic growth.

Maruti Suzuki is one of India's leading automobile manufacturers and the market leader in the car segment, both in terms of volume of vehicles sold and revenue earned. Until recently, 18.28% of the company was owned by the Indian government, and 54.2% by Suzuki of Japan. The Indian government held an initial public offering of 25% of the company in June 2003. As of May 10, 2007, Govt. of India sold its complete share Indian financial institutions. With this, Govt. of India no longer has stake in Maruti Udyog. Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) was established in February 1981, though the actual production commenced in 1983 with the Maruti 800, based on the Suzuki Alto kei car which at the time was the only modern car available in India, its' only competitors- the

Hindustan Ambassador and Premier Padmini were both around 25 years out of date at that point. Through 2004, Maruti has produced over 5 Million vehicles. Marutis are sold in India and various several other countries, depending upon export orders. Cars similar to Marutis (but not manufactured by Maruti Udyog) are sold by Suzuki and manufactured in Pakistan and other South Asian countries. The company annually exports more than 50,000 cars and has an extremely large domestic market in India selling over 730,000 cars annually. Maruti 800, till 2004, was the India's largest selling compact car ever since it was launched in 1983. More than a million units of this car have been sold worldwide so far. Currently, Maruti Alto tops the sales charts and Maruti Swift is the largest selling in A2 segment. Due to the large number of Maruti 800s sold in the Indian market, the term "Maruti" is commonly used to refer to this compact car model. Till recently the term "Maruti", in popular Indian culture, was associated to the Maruti 800 model. Maruti Suzuki India Limited, a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan, has been the leader of the Indian car market for over two decades.Its manufacturing facilities are located at two facilities Gurgaon and Manesar south of New Delhi. Marutis Gurgaon facility has an installed capacity of 350,000 units per annum. The Manesar facilities, launched in February 2007 comprise a vehicle assembly plant with a capacity of 100,000 units per year and a Diesel Engine plant with an annual capacity of 100,000 engines and transmissions. Manesar and Gurgaon facilities have a combined capability to produce over 700,000 units annually. More than half the cars sold in India are Maruti cars. The company is a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan, which owns 54.2 per cent of Maruti. The rest is owned by the public and financial institutions. It is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange in India.

QUICK FACTS
Year of Establishment Vision February 1981 "The Leader in The Indian Automobile Industry, Creating Customer Delight and Shareholder's Wealth; A pride of India." Automotive - Four Wheelers BSE NSE Bloomberg: Reuter: MRTI.BO Code: Code: 532500 MARUTI MUL@IN

Industry Listings & its codes

Joint Venture Registered & Corporate Office

With Suzuki Motor Company, now Suzuki Motor Corporation, of Japan in October 1982. 11th Floor, Jeevan Prakash 25, Kasturba Gandhi Marg New Delhi 110001, India Tel.: +(91)-(11)-23316831 (10 lines) Fax: +(91)-(11)-23318754, 23713575 Telex: 031-65029 MUL IN Palam Gurgaon Road Gurgaon -122015 Haryana, India Tel.: +(91)-(124)-2340341-5, 2341341-5 www.marutiudyog.com

Works

Website

STRIKE IN MARUTI SUZUKI

Maruti is the largest automobile manufacturer in India yet the company does not appear to have been able to develop mature relationships with its employees. Starting from 2000 right up to 2012, the company has faced labour trouble, strike, work stoppages and disruptions from time to time. A 13 day strike during July2011, partial work stoppages and disruptions during September 2000 to January 2001, resumption of confrontation during August 2005, and changes in the union, its name or its character, emergence of another union etc leave many questions unanswered . . Not only did it illustrate the unity among the companys workers, but with workers and unions across states voicing support, it threatened to flare up into a wider industrial dispute, giving strong signals of an acceptance of trade union activity in the country.

Trouble began brewing in May 2011 in Indias largest automaker. On 3rd June, workers of MSILs Manesar plant applied to the registrar of trade unions, Haryana, for registration of their union Marti Suzuki Employees. Union [MSEU].They then asked management to recognize their new union and retain contract labourers for the two upcoming new units inside the complex. Management predictably refused, saying there was already a union in Maruti, the Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU). This is the only recognized union, dominated by workers at the Gurgaon plant. The Manesar plant rolls out about 1,200 1300 units every day in two shifts. The factory produces hatchbacks Swift and A-star and sedans DZire and SX4.The next day after union applied for registration the Marutis management asked its workers to sign an undertaking that they will not be part of the new union.

Can any management under Indian law ask for such an undertaking from its employees? Right of association is a fundamental right under the constitution. .

How it all started...

It all started in June 2011, when eleven leaders of the workers from the Manesar factory went to Chandigarh to meet the Labour Department and complete the formalities regarding registration of a new trade union the Maruti Employee Suzuki Union (MESU). The Labour Department of Haryana that like other organ of the government has been acting as an extended arm of the capitalists faxed this information to the management, following which the management machinery came in full swing to pressurise the workers inside the factory from joining the new union. The management started taking signatures of the workers on a blank sheet and arm twisting them to sign an undertaking that they would continue with the pro-management union the Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU). It would be pertinent to note that the existing union MUKU was formed with the active support of the management, and has in its charter, that it would not affiliate with any trade union federation, nor induct any outsider as office bearer; making it an ideal body for carrying out the diktats of management. The leadership of the new union started mobilizing the workers against signing on the blank paper. On June 4th the leadership started a struggle against the management and was successful in retrieving some of the blank papers. But the management kept pressurising them and resorted to witch hunt as a result the workers decided to go on flash tool down strike from afternoon of June 4, 2011. Thus, started the workers struggle against Maruti Suzuki, which in coming days was to become a flash point in the long history of the working class struggle in India. This strike was joined by the entire workforce of the plant consisting of permanent, casual, as well as the apprentice grade. The workers raised various demands like incentive cuts, few breaks and low wages. They also demanded that the temporary workers should be given preference for permanent posts. It would not be out of place to note the appalling working condition prevalent in the company. A normal shift consists of 8 hours excluding an half an hour lunch and two 7 minutes breaks, during which the worker has to have refreshment as well as visit the toilet etc. A worker loses his half a day wage even if he is one minute late and even though he

continues to work through that half day. A substantial portion of their salary is under the head called performance incentive. If a worker goes on leave for a day, Rupees 1500 is deducted from his salary, for 2 days the amount deducted is Rs. 2200, and for three days Rs. 7000-8000 is deducted. While on the other hand if he works overtime on a holiday then he will be paid Rs. 250 only. The plant lacks in implementation of safety measures, the gloves worn by the workers become unusable soon but they are made to turn the gloves inside out and re-use it, resulting in rashes and allergies. Once the news of the apparent workers unrest came to the front, the management resorted to the age old tactics of cajoling and arm-twisting on 5th and 6th of June, the management sealed the gates; placed security guards in front of them in order to prevent any contact between those workers who were inside the plant with their colleagues outside. The management further prevented the striking workers and their supporters from having any communication with the media. On 6th June eleven workers were dismissed, most of whom were those spearheading the strike and the leaders of the new union. Various trade unions like the Communist Party of India led All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the Communist Party of India Marxist led Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the social-democrats led Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) along with the ruling Congress party led Trade Union Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) formed a joint action committee to support the strike. AITUC emerged as the main representative and spokesperson of the workers given the fact that it has some unions in adjoining factories. This joint action committee mobilised workers from adjacent factories and demanded that the eleven terminated members be reinstated. The other major demands of the workers were put on a back burner. The AITUC general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta, on being asked, on the conditions put forward by the union, in its talk with management said: There is just one agreement. All the 11 workers should be taken back. Meanwhile the Haryana government that has always sided with the capitalists and is in forefront of implementing the neo-liberal programme expectedly declared the strike illegal with its Minister of Labour and Employment declaring: The Haryana government has, under the provisions of the Industrial Depute Act, 1947, referred the matter of ongoing strike in Maruti Suzuki Udyog Ltd, Manesar, by the workers to the competent labour court and has also passed the orders prohibiting the continuance of the strike in the industrial unit. The strike got support from other workers of the area who came out in full support of their fighting comrades. In fact the Gurgaon industrial area has been privy to a massive show of working class solidarity in almost all the major struggles, which have been waged. One may remember that the workers of the area came out in full swing when in October 2009, Ajeet Yadav, an employee of the automobile firm RICO Pvt. Ltd, was brutally murdered by the hired goons of the factory management. At that time, more than one lakh (one hundred thousand) angry workers from the various companies joined in a strike on 20th October bringing the entire Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt to a near standstill.

They were demanding immediate action to be taken against the guilty and to enforce a better pay and working conditions for them, including the right to form their own union.Unfortunately in the absence of a revolutionary left force, the working class resentment is not being taken to next level of converting it to a mass movement against capital. On 20th June the workers of the adjoining industries planned to hold a massive demonstration, this took the state administration and the entire capitalist to come on backfoot, the Maruti Suzuki management had also started feeling the heat due to zero car production in the plant, Maruti management repeatedly had to assure the anxious market and ever anxious shareholders that car dealers have 20 to 28 days stock and that the loss of 6,000 cars can bemade up for. AITUC leader Gurudas Dasgupta meanwhile started negotiation with the Haryana Chief Minister and even hoped that solution was within reach, by then the demand put forward by AITUC was already reduced to pure bargain of reinstating the terminated workers. Dasgupta even requested the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and wrote a letter, urging him to speak to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and help end the standoff. On the other hand, the secretary of AITUC, D. L. Sachdeva went public with statements like AITUC will ask the Maruti Suzuki workers to work overtime once the dispute is settled, and, We want it *the dispute author] to be resolved. Even the workers are anxious to restart the production. Hopefully, some solution will be found. We want the workers should resume production, normalcy should prevail and we will persuade the workers to make up for this loss of production by working extra hours or on holidays. AITUC wants industrial development to take place in Haryana. We are not against FDI investments but we feel these multinational corporations should respect our national laws, and should allow workers to form their own union. On the other hand the management for the first time budged and said that they are ready to accept the new union registration on their own terms. Under this plan, the new union was to be under tutelage of companys umbrella council, which would be responsible for wage revision and ameliorating other issues. In another word the proposed union was to be nothing more than a controlled entity a workers club; which of late business entities world over, have been promoting under the deceptive termsCorporate social responsibility(CSR), worker-management partnership etc. to deceive the working class and by-pass their genuine grievances. As in other struggles, the reformist left leadership capitulated to the companys gesture and pursuant to verbal assurances of government officials and company management called off their solidarity strike, D. L. Sachdeva, the AITUC Secretary in the morning of 14th had declared a tool-down strike at some factories, workers in up to 65 plants in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt, later on the same day he told the media that The two-

hour strike has been called-off for today on the appeal of the Chief Minister and the Labour Commissioner. They sought a days time to resolve the issue. Consequently, the strike has been postponed for 24 hours.4 Taking the age-old road of smothering any workers discontent from assuming a militant stance, the AITUC-CITU duo true to their character subsumed the workers discontent under bureaucratic wrangling. On 17th June after negotiations were held between the representatives of the Haryana Government, the company management and the representative of the new union (Maruti Suzuki Employees Union) Shiv Kumar and D. L. Sachdeva. During this talk they resolved: The company has now agreed that we would not be asked to sign the paper. Also, the fact that Maruti took back the 11 workers shows that our demands were met. Again no demand for improving the working condition, wage were made, the other demand for forming new union was left ambiguous. With this assurance the strike ended, the workers were told that they have achieved victory. The victory was that the eleven workers were to undergo an inquiry that the Left leaders termed as normal, and the other being that the workers lost only two days wage per day of strike instead of eight. The wage deduction was another of several new traits that became evident in this strike. So the first phase of strike ended. The company hired external trainers and spiritual organisation The Brahmkumaris to heal the relation between the company and the workers. But the dynamics of struggle had still not finished. Emboldened by their stand and cornering workers during the strike, the old approach of management continued. For almost a month tense but calm situation prevailed inside the factory. The management claimed that the workers are deliberately not achieving the production and are also compromising on the quality of the cars. On 26th July the registration of the new union was rejected citing irregularities. The registration of the new union was never to be done as the Haryana government had time and again declared that it wants a congenial environment for development, so that more capital comes to the province. Suzuki had also threatened that it was contemplating to shift its operation to the more industrial friendly state of Gujarat, where the arch-rightist BJP led government of Narender Modi, had assured them and other industrialists of providing a peaceful probusiness environment. In fact it is worth noting that when the Tatas faced the peoples protest for their Nano car project in West Bengal, Gujarat offered them land and industrial peace. This is the state of Indian ruling class, who vie with each other to provide for the maximum exploitation of working class, so that capital comes to their area. Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director, of Maruti Suzuki India, thundered that at no cost will the company tolerate a second union. He said It has always been our policy to have one union for all workers, with the union having no outsiders as members. We are making efforts to communicate with our workers at Manesar, change will come about gradually through education.

On 27th July, the situation became tense once again, when the contract workers raised their concern of excessive work pressure and demanded more people to be hired. The management, it seems was waiting for such incident to occur. Next day the police entered the premises and arrested four workers while six more workers were suspended, the workers started protest and the management was forced to state that the four workers were not arrested. The second shift workers were not allowed to come inside the factory. The first shift workers refused to leave the factory premises. The management said that the suspended workers would be reinstated, but it had by then started hiring new people for places outside of the Delhi region, mostly on contract basis. The supervisors who after the first round of strike were showing some sign of human behaviour, again resorted to their old way of high handedness. By 28th August, a total of ten workers were suspended while another eleven were dismissed. In the night a 300 to 400 strong police force in riot gear entered the factory converting it into a virtual police station. According to report in media, the order to send so manypolicemen to the site in Manesar came directly from the office of Deepender Singh Hooda, Member of Parliament from Rohtak (Manesar is in the Rohtak constituency). Hooda is the son of the Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Hooda.5 The management also announced that all workers would have to sign agood conduct bond before they are allowed to enter the factory. According to this bond which claimed that it is being signed voluntarilyin accordance with Clause 25(3) of the Certified Standing Orders. The workers were and should not resort to go-slow, intermittent stoppage of work, stay-in-strike, work-to-rule, sabotage or otherwise indulge in any activity hampering production, irrespective of any steps taken by the management. In other words this bond was nothing but a legal way of keeping the workers as bonded wage slaves. There is no provision for such bonds in the labour laws of the country; neither do such provisions exist in any place in world. But then in this age of neo-liberalism the capitalists formulate their own rules. Later the Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said in parliament that good conduct bonds was an arbitrary act and amounted to unfair labour practice. But during the entire strike period the minister and his ministry were tight lipped on the validity of the bond. The media, as expected left no stone unturned in vilifying the workers for not signing the bond, without examining the provisions of it. Not one of the so called mainstream intellectual or media asked, why do not the management also sign a good conduct bond for being a good employer! The entire showdown since the beginning was portrayed as a mere local dispute being fanned by left wing trade unions. The news covered only of the loss being incurred by the company, as if the workers whose entire survival was at stake were a happy lot.

Only eighteen workers signed the bond on the first day and rest all chose to resist. The management started to hire contract workers and depute workers from its other plant and started the production. The news of this struggle had spread worldwide with its greatest impact being on the adjacent companies, where also the situation was same as that prevalent in Maruti. The working class as on other occasions started galvanising. On the first of September approximately 3,000 members from 35 unions of the region gathered in front of the Manesar plant to voice their solidarity with the belligerent workers. The unions declared a tool-down strike the following week if the management of Maruti does not come for negotiation. The entire working class of the area got mobilised and on 12th September, another strike took place at the automobile supplier Munjal Showa in Manesar. The companies plant at Gurgaon and Haridwar also went on strike. The companys management said that the Maruti incident was behind the strike. The Maruti struggle attracted solidarity from the progressive section of the society with students from Delhi and other organisations coming out in full support. The other subsidiaries of Maruti itself came into grip of struggle, with workers getting mobilised at Suzuki Powertrain Ltd. and Suzuki Castings in Manesar and workers at Suzuki Motorcycle India Ltd. in neighbouring Kherki Dhaula in comradeship with the Maruti Suzuki workers and for own demands. More than 4,000 workers of these factories went on strike. The official union of Maruti MUKU at the Gurgaon plant when asked to support talked of a potential of a hunger strike, instead of coming out in full favour of the workers. By 16th of September the strike at the Suzuki Powertrain and Suzuki castings, forced the management to close the Gurgaon plant due to non-availability of parts. The union in Suzuki Powertrain is affiliated with HMS. On the same day they negotiated with the management to end the strike at the Suzuki Powertrain, thus once again betraying the class solidarity. This incident gave company the lifeline which otherwise would have forced it to accept workers demands. Again the anti-working class character of the social democrats became evident. Meanwhile the company continued to hire temporary staff and dismiss/suspend the existing workers. Solidarity protests took place in various cities of India. Several people from various left progressive organisations protested in front of Haryana Bhawan in Delhi and at a Maruti Suzuki showroom near Connaught Place. Meanwhile the media announced that in Maruti more than 1300 people had started working, and production had started. A claim that later was refuted by the workers. A section of Japanese railway union also demonstrated in a show of solidarity giving the struggle an international character.

The New Trade Union Initiative decided to stage demonstrations in front of Maruti Suzuki establishments in 12 locations across India. The trade union federation decided to observe a National Day of Action in Solidarity with Maruti Workers on 22nd September. The solidarity and protest demonstrations were held, across India where various affiliates of NTUI took part. In Delhi, according to NTUI press statement around 75 people, including NTUI affiliate members, the WorkersUnion Trade Union (WUTU), along with the Voltas Employees Union (VEU), Mazdoor Ekta Manch, and students and teachers of the University of Delhi (through New Socialist Initiative and Students for Social Justice) marched from the Tiz Hazari Metro Station to a Maruti-Suzuki showroom on afternoon of 22nd September. The showroom was occupied for about half an hour and then held a public meeting in car yard of the outlet that was addressed by Padam (WUTU), Tek Chand Jangra (Voltas) and Gautam Mody (NTUI). Similar protests happened in states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. A meeting between the union and management failed again on 27th September. The management remained adamant on the signing of a good conduct bond and on suspension. The workers polarisation by then not only spread to Suzukis other plants but also in other factories in the Gurgaon Manesar area. Apart from the adjacent areas, the news of valiant struggle going on in the Maruti had a profound impact on the other industrial areas of the country where the workers started strikes and protests. For instance workers in Bosch automobiles went into a two week lock-out in Bangalore against the companys decision to outsource some work and dismantle the plant. AITUC meanwhile came with a declaration saying that it will end the strike and press for an immediate return to work, if the company agrees to place about half of the 62 fired workers and would be happy if the workers are put on suspension. AITUC had been closely coordinating with other two central trade unions CITU and HMS, as mentioned above. The trio again entered in agreement with the management to end the strike. According to the agreement the workers were to sign the good conduct bond; the dismissal of 15 workers were to be turned into suspension; plus No work, no pay along with one daily wage per day to be imposed on the workers as penalty! Like on the earlier occasion there was no demand made from the workers side, and the entire agreement was signed keeping in mind the management wishes. The Trade Unions repeatedly declared that the workers are in weak position, completely ignoring the fact that the workers were really at the bargaining position due to the economic loss being sustained by the company and the massive proliferation of working class solidarity in the area. Had these TUs adopted a firm stand and instead of saying the workers are in weak position given a militant call for working class unity, the outcome would have been very different. But then severing ties with reformism does not happen overnight.

Emboldened by the events, the management went on the extreme to suppress the militant spirit of the workers. When the workers returned to work on 3rd October, the company refused entry to the 1,200 workers hired through contractors and were refused entry as they had also taken part in the protest and company occupation and had demonstrated solidarity with the other workers. Inside the factory Maruti decided to shift a lot of workers from one work-station to the other, which caused discontent. The company also suspended the company bus service that used to fetch workers who lived further away. With no public means of transport available the workers found it extremely difficult to reach the factory on time, which gave the management another chance to deduct wages for coming late. The workers again started protest, defying the solution agreed by the capitalist backed Haryana government, the company management, along with the Trade Union combine of HMS-AITUC-CITU. The 3,500 workers on October 7th, again went on a flash strike, against the betrayal and the excesses of the management. This action at Manesar again sparked a wave of working class action with almost 8,000 workers at a dozen or more auto industryrelated plants in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt, staging a walk-out in a display of class solidarity. The workers took complete control of the plant. The management had to concede that The plant is effectively captive in the hands of striking workers who are bent upon violence. The management termed this action as a law and order problem. The company said the latest round of labour unrest at the plant is degenerating into a law and order problem, with workers indulging in several random acts of violence and damage to property inside the factory premises on Saturday (8th October). The agitating workers attacked co-workers, supervisors and executives in multiple incidents of violence, and damaged factory property since they began the stay-in strike on Friday evening (7th October), according to the official statement issued by the company. The statement said that on Saturday (8th October), the company was able to rescue 355 contractual workers. They were badly beaten up by the striking workers. They were forced to join the stay-in by the striking workers. These contractual workers were rescued by police. They were provided medical assistance, and later left the factory premises, To counter this law and order problem a local armed labour contractor Tirupati Enterprises was hired, whose goons fired gun-shots and threw bottles at striking workers outside the Suzuki Motorcycle plant injuring at least three workers. The police helped the attackers to get off without taking any action. The corporate controlled media was fed by the management with all sorts of anti-worker news. The reportage in the media since start of the strike had attempted to portray the incident as a case of rise in militant trade unionism and anti-development agenda of Left.

One eminent national newspaper wrote Manufacturers are working on really thin margins, Instead of going on strikes, which arent beneficial for anyone, workers should rather be part of the growth process, which would be mean higher benefits for them in the long run. On 14th October the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said regarding Maruti, Labour unrest is a matter of serious concerns, we need to address it efficiently. What does efficientlymean is open to interpretation. However after this observation the police came into action and arrested one office member of the MSEU union from his house at 2 am, and raided the houses of other MSEU representatives. More cops entered Manesar plant, and took down the workers food-kitchen, which had supplied food to around 4,000 workers at Powertrain and Maruti Suzuki plant. Unconfirmed reports said that around 1,500 to 2,500 police personnel went inside the Maruti factory. They shut down access to water, canteen and toilets. Earlier on the same day, according to the media report, over 100 analysts, investors and fund managers of Maruti Suzuki participated in a conference call with Sonu Gujjar, president of Maruti Suzuki Employees Union, to talk about the situation. It was later said that a deal was clinched between them and Sonu Gujjar. Strikes, negotiations and coercion continued till 21st October, when it was declared that an agreement has been reached. The management agreed to take back 64 permanent workers, but 33 workers mostly the frontline leaders of the new union remained suspended. The company flatly again refused to recognise MSEU but agreed to set up a workers grievance committee and labour welfare committee, in which the Labour Officer from the state government will be key comforting factor. Thus, ended the 55 days of workers struggle, that is being been pronounced as the most significant workers struggle in India in the last two decades. Once again production of cars in the factory resumed, in almost the same work conditions as before the strike. A few days later it was reported that the management had given the Sonu Gujjar leaders of the new trade union 40 Lakhs (4 million) rupees [some other media reported the sum to be one crore], similarly other members were given sum ranging from 40 Lakhs to 12 lakhs, as golden handshakes to leave the company and their comrades!

What does this entire drama point to??

This strike has to be seen against the greater backdrop of the bourgeoisies clamouring for a speedy completion of the neo-liberal agenda. The capitalists have been demanding for more labour reform a euphemism for abolition of whatever labour welfare measures and laws that exist in the country. This intention was behind the resoluteness of the Maruti management in not accepting any of the workers demands. Maruti being the market leader in the burgeoning Indian automobile segment had to take up the matter, in demanding for more conducivelabour reforms. The struggle of the Maruti workers in particular and the solidarity that they received from the other working class in general, revealed the sub-human work conditions prevalent in a company that is a leader in automobiles and was touted as a model entity; on the other it raises some serious issues confronting the labour movement in the country. That requires much thinking and introspection. The Maruti workersmovement should not be seen just as a trade union struggle. It was a struggle for the right to organise, unionise and protest against exploitative conditions is crucial. The strike failed to achieve the desired outcome, but it did manage to galvanise the workers. But in absence of a radical left it could not be converted into a spearhead of wider working class struggle against the whole neo-liberal regime and pro-investor governments of the capitalists.

Outcome of the strike

The 55 days of struggle brought in light the clear class difference not only in the factory but also outside. The Government both central and state along with other agencies came out in full support of the Maruti management. The media controlled by the capitalists broke all barriers of neutral journalism and openly sided with the management terming the entire episode as one created due to the selfish and scrupulous workers incited by the leftist leaders, who want to destabilise the phenomenal economic growth plan.

The compromising reformist left and social democratic TU federations also assisted the management wholeheartedly, while claiming to champion the cause of the workers. Whenever workers pressure was being built up and the management went on a backfoot, they rescued the latter and gave them the vital sap in the form of ending the strike, or coming into agreement with the management, to survive and crush the workers. They kept on harping that the workers are in a weak position when actually they were at an advantage, thus causing widespread frustration and disillusionment. When it was required to give a nationwide call to sustain the strike and call for national working class solidarity, they were seen either negotiating with the management or giving desperate calls to the state and national government to intervene in the struggle to resolve the contentious issues amicably and restore industrial peace, knowing fully well with whom the sympathies of these governments lay.

Since the beginning the political demands of the workers were ignored and later dropped, converting the entire struggle as that of resumption of suspension. Even the economic demands that one expects from trade union practising pure economismwere dropped and never taken up. This shows the level of bureaucratism that has permeated into these unions, that Lenin called the social mainstay of the bourgeoisie. In December 1917 Lenin wrote: One of the most important tasks of today, if not the most important, is to develop [the] independent initiative of the workers, and of all the working and exploited people generally, develop it as widely as possible in creative organisational work. Today as during Lenins time the activities of the venal trade union bureaucrats and of the so-called working class politicians need to be exposed whose loud talk of workers welfare is nothing but a mere screen for continuing bourgeois labour policy. The incident if on one hand exposed the reformist trade unions on the other hand it also showed the weakness of the radical left politics. The non-revisionist TUs and left organisations grossly failed to make a positive intervention, whatever intervention they made was to come in all out support for the workers while subsuming their own polity behind the spontaneityof the workers demands. Politicising and turning the strike into mass struggle or taking it to higher level was not taken up and they were also seen appealing to the Indian state for resolution. Subsuming Left ideology and making it secondary to the dominant trend has only been counterproductive. In the 1980s A.K Roy experimented with it, when he made the Marxist trend (represented by his Marxist Coordination Committee) to play a secondary role giving primary position to the nonMarxist Jharkhand tribal leadership, resulting in the entire Jharkhand movement losing revolutionary direction and the non-Marxist leadership becoming easy prey to bourgeois politics. This had a major impact on the trade union movement in the coalfields where the working class as a coherent unit got divided into regionalism, making it easy for the government to decimate the gains that the workers had won after long drawn struggle. In Maruti the radical left leadership similarly failed to politicize the Maruti leaders and they also started to support just economic demands. The old trade union style of only raising economic demands and creating a trade unionist devoid of political consciousness, once again proved that it is incapable of taking any working class movement to a higher level of struggle. It is time for the radical left groups and unions to introspect on the conventional style of trade unionism. Any social movement cannot be digressed from politics, this is what Marx has said and it has been proved true umpteen times. The day of pure trade unionism is over. In the face of the massive onslaught of international capital and the forces of neo-liberalism, trade unionism devoid of politics cannot lead the working class nor bring any tangible benefit. On the other hand they would only degenerate into a tool for the bourgeoisie to crush any

working class resentment. It is time to bring back radicalism in the trade union politics as taught by Marx and Lenin, that was abandoned by the trade unions and communist party after the revisionists took over the international communist movement. The result of this line has manifested in the shrinking of the influence of the Marxist trade unions the world over much to the delight of the capitalists and the bourgeois state apparatus. The fight against opportunism and economism needs to be seriously thought over. The trade union movement and the revolutionary forces have to struggle to balance the correlation of class forces that today, due to the compromising attitude of the reformist left unions and those advocating neutrality and de-politicisation of the working class, has tilted heavily in favour of the bourgeoisie. The strike is the prologue to impending working class action. History is witness that violent repression and the tyranny of the state and the capital have never been able to subjugate the might of advancing workers. Maruti and similar strikes that will occur in future open up the possibility of working class offensive, against the anti-worker regime of capital making headway to the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat against capitalism. The battle at Maruti might have temporarily suffered a setback but the struggle continues. As these lines are being written, reports from the factory are again coming of workers realigning and re-grouping to start the struggle from where it was abandoned. The workers have said that they will restart the process of having their own union and continue to raise their demand. This reflects the depth of militancy amongst the working class which is prevalent and growing, which cannot be crushed by the bourgeois machinery. The strategic position of the class has changed and hence the ability to bargain and fight. The fact remains that at a global level the working class would continue to play a strategic role, but at the shop floor level it no longer has the leverage as before. Those involved in Left and working class politics have to initiate a longer discussion on this.

Class War, Death, Fire, Manesar, Maruti-Suzuki

Factories kill people. Occasionally, those who die belong to the management. Usually, they are workers. On the first of May, (International Labour Day) 2009, several workers at the Lakhani Shoe Factory in Faridabad, Haryana, were struck by a ball of fire, which engulfed them before they could run to save their lives. The fire, caused by willful neglect of elementary safety procedures, did not result in criminal charges being framed against the management or proprietors of the Lakhani Vardaan Group, which owns the Lakhani Shoes Factory. A report in the Gurgaon Workers News (No.9/18) has this account of the fire On 1st of May 2009 the Lakhani Shoes factory, plot 122 in Faridabad Sector 24 caught fire, the newspapers first wrote of six, then of ten, then of fifteen dead workers. Lakhani is said to be the countrys largest maker and exporter of canvas and vulcanised shoes, has two dozen units in the district. A younger worker who is employed in a neighbouring factory came to Faridabad Majdoor Library three days later. He said that it is more than likely that 50 100 or more workers have been killed. A boiler on the first floor exploded, the floor collapsed and buried many workers who were waiting for their over-time payment in the basement. He said that he saw at least 100 burnt bicycles outside the factory. He met a landlord in industrial village Mujesar who said that his three tenants, employed at Lakhani havent returned. He met an older woman whose son is still missing. Most of these workers were not officially employed; their names were not on the Lakhani pay-roll. Many of them were from Nepal and single, meaning that they were not immediately reported missing by their families. From the reported 38 workers who were brought to various hospitals in Faridabad there is no hospital for severe burn treatment only one worker had an official ESI health insurance number. The rest is unknown. Bodies burnt to cinders are difficult to identify, unless they leave behind distinct identifying objects, like gold teeth. DNA matches are possible to do if there are records of relatives. None of the workers at the Lakhani fire had gold teeth. Many of them were contract workers, nobody knew who their relatives were. They were incinerated without trace. On the 20th of July 2012, a charred body found at the site of an incident of alleged mob violence the evening before (19th July) by the workers of Maruti Suzuki India Limiteds Manesar plant was identified as that of Awanish Kumar Dev, a manager in the Human Resources department of the Maruti Suzuki Manesar Plant. Mr. Dev had a gold tooth. DNA

samples were also taken and these proved his identity when matched with DNA samples taken from his immediate family. His familys agony, while waiting for confirmation of the identity of the deceased, can not be imagined. Imagine the agony of the relatives of some of the evaporated workers of Lakhani shoes. Several posts in Kafila have gone into the background of the tragic incident of Mr. Devs death in Manesar in some detail. We have guest-posts from the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union and Anumeha Yadav, a post from Aditya Nigam, and kafialite Aman Sethi has written in The Hindu. Each of these has been useful in thinking through this thorny and intractable issue. In the interests of economy, I will try and not repeat what they have said already. My concern is death, and the meaning of death, especially when it happens in and around a factory. Since the day of the confirmation of the unfortunate and condemnable death of Awanish Kumar Dev, a sad casualty of the ongoing class conflict in north Indian Industrial heartland of Haryana, we have witnessed tsunami of rage from those who view the killing of a manager in a factory as a calamity. Regrettably, sometimes the most terrible of tragedies (and the death of Mr. Dev is no doubt a profound human tragedy for his family and friends) becomes an instrument for larger and more impersonal agendas. When a fire engulfs a factory, the body of those trapped inside burns in the same way, regardless of who they are. Suffocation due to smoke does the same things to the lungs, regardless of whether the lungs belong to a worker or a manager. When the results of an inferno are the same, we need to think about why the consequences of two fires are so different? What makes the victim of an alleged act of arson more worthy of mourning than the victims of an instance of willful neglect? We have heard a lot about one fire in Manesar in the past few days. Why have we heard so little about another fire in Faridabad over the last three years? As I write, ninety one workers of the Maruti-Suzuki factory in Manesar have been sent into judicial custody and are currently in Bhondsi Jail. The Haryana police are looking for five hundred unnamed others. The magistrate, in an unusual departure from procedure, delivered her decision to send the workers into judicial custody in a police station. The accused in any case are supposed to be presented before magistrates so that they can record their statements without fear or coercion, thereby enabling the magistrate to take a clear preliminary view of their culpability. Here, since it was a manager in a company as important as Maruti Suzuki that had died, it seems that the magistrate, police, and the Haryana government found it fit that normal procedure be kept in abeyance. Ministers (of the government of Haryana and the centre) made statements. Narendra Modi (as befits a prime minister in waiting) went to Japan and invited Suzuki Corporation to sup at his table. Editorial writers polished their

turns of phrase. Captains of industry called for ruthless measures. Notwithstanding the Maoists well known contempt for the industrial proletariat, The ministry of home affairs hinted at the involvement of Maoists. Angry, righteous and right-wing bloggers and television commentators found a made-to-order opportunity to ventilate their well honed class-hatred against workers. Everyone who mattered seemed to want to scrap labour laws. Meanwhile, a lawyer representing the accused in a communication to me yesterday said that many of the young workers who are currently being held in Bhondsi jail were not even in the factory at the time that the unfortunate incidents of violence occurred, as their shift had not yet started. The matter of timing and presence, so crucial as evidence in an ordinary criminal trial is a minor and dispensable detail in this extraordinary case. What matters is that ninety one young workers are in jail, currently being persuaded by the Haryana Police to implicate themselves in this tragedy, so that the angry bloggers, captains of industry, editorial writers and the good and the great of this land can have their moment of outrage. Perhaps a Maoist or two or three will be discovered amongst them by the Ministry of Home Affairs, with the same diligence with which it has recently found Maoist spirits lurking within the bodies of dead children in chatisgarh. The Haryana Police is combing the country side around Manesar, and further afield. The Haryana Police is not known for its gentle investigative procedures. It is going to the tenements that workers (many of them migrant) live in, in the villages around Manesar, in Rohtak and Jhajjhar. They are threatening anyone they can. Families are being told that unless they give up their sons, they will be held responsible, and that the police will not hold themselves responsible for what they do to make them give up their sons. This one sad, unnecessary and unfortunate death has set back the gains of more than a year of a non-violent, disciplined intelligent and militant workers struggle at Maruti-Suzuki by decades. It will take time to know what exactly happened. Perhaps it will take an eternity. Who lit the fire? What angry words were said? What provocations, if any, were present that made the workers lose their careful and disciplined resolve (that was so visible throughout last year) not to give in to the temptation of violence? Were there, as has been alleged by some workers, agent-provocateurs brought in by the management who lit the first spark? Why is it being said that those who started the fight did not recognize known leaders of the union? Did someone from the management pull a gun? Or is this all idle rumor mongering? Perhaps we will never know the exact truth. The truth is most likely to be the first thing that will be buried under the mountain of statements and confessions that will now be harvested by the brave-hearts of the Haryana Police in Bhondsi Jail. But one thing can be said for certain. The exemplary solidarity between permanent, contracted (thekedari) and casual workers at the Maruti Plant at Manesar stands

threatened today by the climate of fear that the state and the management will use to divide the workers of Manesar at every step from now onwards. In situations of class war, as in chess, the fall of a piece need not mean victory for the opposing side. A manager is dead, and workers are check-mated in Manesar. Factories kill people, especially those who enter their gates in search of a living. Sometimes they kill suddenly, sometimes, they take their time.

As some one once said. Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.
A living wage is harder to come by than death on the cheap. Three years ago, in October 2009, a twenty six year old worker called Ajit Yadav was killed in cold blood by police and thugs hired by the management at a picket outside the F.C.C Rico Factory, also in Manesar. There had been a dispute. When is there not a dispute? Workers were picketing the factory, legally, in support of their demands, and had won a judicial order that allowed them to set up their protest at a distance of 50 metros from the factory gate. The management decided to use force to lift the picket. Ajit Yadav died. At first the police refused to file an FIR. Eventually, an FIR was filed, but the time of its filing was changed, and another complaint was inserted at the behest of the management that made it out that workers attacked the management. The managements complaint could be given priority. One hundred thousand workers from the Gurgaon Manesar industrial belt went on strike. Two people were arrested, but workers allege that not a single person actually associated with the crime was detained. Some workers were also held on general charges of rioting. But nothing happened about Ajit Yadavs killing. No one from the management was even questioned. The case dragged on in court. Witnesses turned hostile. Money changed hands. The management, which had heaped abuse at Ajit Yadav only days before, offered compensation and condolences to his family. An agreement was reached, brokered by the labour department. Peace returned to the Rico Factory, over the dead body of Ajit Yadav. Reportedly, The HR manager and the police officers associated with this case have all been promoted. There were no pious editorials. No angry blog posts calling for hanging the culprits of Ajit Yadavs death. The captains of industry were on Diwali vacation. No minister made a statement. It did not make breaking news. Ajit Yadav was not Awanish Kumar Dev. Ajit Yadav is not the only other casualty in the roster of workers and those who have acted in workers interests who have fallen to managements moves. We could add the names of M. Murali Mohan, a worker and labour organizer at Regency Ceramics, Yanam, (an enclave

of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh) who was killed while being on a picket outside his factory by police that acted at the behest of management. Workers retaliated by rioting, which led to the death of a manager. A key pawn was taken, and a knight sacrificed. Capital played its next move. We could add the name of Sunil Pal, labour activist, close to CPI (ML Liberation) in the mining industry who was shot dead by unknown miscreants in Haripur, Burdwan, West Bengal, allegedly by CPI(M) cadre. We could add the names of popular theatre artist and CPI(M) activist Safdar Hashmi and CITU member Ram Bahadur, whose Congress Party linked killers were convicted fourteen long years after the death of Hashmi and Bahadur in Sahibabad, UP. Other well known cold cases include the assassinations of independent trade union leaders Datta Samant and Shankar Guha Niyogi. In none of these cases was the involvement of management interests ever probed in any great detail. In the Shankar Guha Niyogi, case, despite overwhelming evidence, the industrialists suspected of conspiring to kill him were acquitted, only Paltan Mallah, the lone hired killer who pulled the trigger at their bidding is doing time in jail. There have been police firings on peaceful workers protests in Faridabad (the infamous Neelam Chowk firing of 1979) and massacre of workers of the Swadeshi Cotton Mills in Kanpur (1977), or more recent incidents like the harsh assaults like the attack by police on striking Honda workers in 2005, but the memory of these incidents never stains the commentariats angry denunciation of working class behavior. Even Marutis own history is marred by an earlier episode of violence where the victims were clearly workers, not management. During the strike in the Maruti factory in Gurgaon in 2000, two workers - water pump operator, Chander Bhan, fifty six, and Rajesh Kumar, a twenty year old apprentice died mysteriously on the same day, (October 18th) while a third , thirty nine year old draftsman Anand Singh Bohra, was committed to a psychiatric ward in a hospital the following day. All three workers had been forcibly detaine (along with several others) within the factory premises for several days in order to continue production while the strike continued. Chander Bhan was declared dead on arrival in the hospital and Rajeshs dead body was found ten kilometers away from the factory. The union was denied access to post mortem reports and no member of the management was ever investigated for these mysterious deaths. Death does not come to the factory riding only bullets and the lethal blows of police lathis. It comes casually, with the accident, or in solitude, with suicide. Across the world, there is a growing incidence of workplace deaths. China leads the world in work place suicides. Closely followed by Japan and South Korea. The US recorded 5,734 workplace deaths due to traumatic injuries in 2005 while in the same year, there were 1097 workplace deaths in Canada. An average of 1,376 people die each year in industrial or workplace accidents in Italy. In India, the government figure of

668 total workplace fatalities (last recorded for 2009) seems to be a strong case of underreporting, especially as the majority of workers are not permanent and so do not show up on records. ILO estimates suggest that the gross under-reporting of Industrial accidents in India actually hides some of the highest industrial accident fatality figures in the world. According to Decent Work Safe Work, ILO Introductory Report to the XVIIth World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, released in September 2005, India could have as many as 40,000 deaths per year due to industrial accidents alone. Devastating fires, like the one at the Lakhani factory in Faridabad, which (officially )killed 15 workers on the 1st of May 2009 are far more frequent than they need to be. Let us look at one accidental death. Mohammad Rabban, a garment worker employed at the Medolama Factory, in Gurgaon died an utterly unnecessary death on the 17th of January, 2011 . Here is an excerpt from a report in the Gurgaon Workers News of January 2011. This death was referred to in an earlier Kafila post The Republic of Exploitation uploaded by Sunalini Kumar on January 27, 2011. At around 3 am on the morning of 16th January or, the 15th nights overtime, 17 and-ahalf hours into continuous sewing and stitching for the 21hour shift, sitting on his iron stool, Md. Rabban, died instantly of electrocution through one of the live wires protruding out of the production line in the garment factory, Modelama Exports in Plot no.105-106, Phase 1, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon. Md. Rabban, who had been working, sampling, stitching, sewing, washing, ironing and producing clothes for Modelama, for the past more than 7 years and in the 105 unit since its production started three and-half years back, hailed from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, and was paid the measly minimum wage of Rs.4200 (after the cuts for ESI, PF, and the breaks, from Rs. 4800). As usual, on 15 January also, Rabban reached in the morning 9.30 am shift to start his day on the production line to work till 6.30am the next day, to resume work again at 9.30am. There were two breaks of half-hour each at 1.30-2pm, and then again at 6.30-7 (which workers pay for themselves, and for which wage is deducted from the workers themselves), a dinner break from 8.30-9.30pm (tasteless stale food in the canteen, for which the company pays a mere Rs.20), and then a next chai break at 2.303am. Ten minutes later into resuming work, at around 3.10am, in the overtime and already 17 hours into work, one of the live wires protruding out in front of his machine, electrocuted Rabban as his hand was caught in between the line. A number of complaints were regularly made about the safety conditions and specially about the leak in the current in the electric machines in the production line, and nothing as would cost the company was done about it. The usual thing that does get done in such situations by the management is the management of the body, i.e. to wipe it out of sight, as workers recall earlier incidents of the sweeper in the morning sweeping out litres of blood on occasions of the death of workers due to over-work, clash with management etc. However, before

any such cleansing attempt, the around 80 workers in the production line who witnessed the incident, made an uproar, and tried to help their saathi/work-mate. There was a cry for immediately taking Rabban to the hospital, and because the company had neither doctors nor an ambulance for such (frequently occuring) situation, and was also unwilling to spare its own cars, the workers offered to take him themselves to the hospital in a hired car in front of the company and were pooling in the Rs.1500 required for the transport. Sensing the workers reaction, the management (the supervisor and other staff) shut production immediately, took possession of the body, and took him to the hospital where he was declared brought dead, and then to the morgue after post-mortem, and with an rapidity which only came later, also took the body to the Nizamuddin cemetry and buried him. The police was informed and an F.I.R registered under Sec.304-A which declared it a freak accident. Meanwhile the workers of the production line, were joined by those coming in for the morning shift, and anger erupted outside the closed gates of the factory, with over a thousand workers pelting stones and breaking the sleek glass front of the company. The low pay, the single overtime, the non-payment of back wages, the no-offs strictness, the continued and regular harassment in the form of abuse and even slaps and beatings, the strong surveillance in the from of finger-print/biometric entry and the CCTV cameras at every nook and line with the suspicion of workers-as-thieves while clearly it is the other way round, all took form in this solidarity action. Workers of other companies in the area going for their morning shifts also joined in to express their solidarity and anger. Police was employed to control the anger, and disperse the angry workers who demanded justice for Rabban. The company however came out much later, and made an oral statement about the promised payment of Rs. 1lakh to the family of the deceased. And by around 2pm on the 16th, the spontaneous wave of anger was stifled with the threat of police, targetting-andpossible-suspension and management-through-the-family. The next days newspapers reported in an insignificant column, an accident in the Modelama company which was resolved. Work remained suspended on the 16th. /on the 17th morning, when workers got back to the company, after some initial tension at the gates, work was resumed. however soon after, in many departments, many workers again took up the previous days incident and its sham resolution in a general uproar, which the management stifled with selective representation of some workers, and a promised 50-50 joint-fund of workers and the companys contribution which will be paid to the family of Rabban. That it was a dir ect case of negligence of the company was skirted and work was resumed again, not after a fire broke out (it was unclear how, or by whom) in one of the departments which took some time to be doused.

The Modelama Exports unit situated in plot 105-106 in Phase 1, has around 4500 workers, and it is one of its several units in operation in Haryana, Delhi and Chennai. (Plot nos. 105, 106, 184, 200, 201, 204 in Udyog Vihar, Phase-I, 660 in Phase-II, plot nos. 5, 7, 18, 89 in IMT Manesar, one each in Sonipat and Rewari, two- B-33 and B-57 in Okhla Phase-I, and one in Chennai). Selling the mystifying aura of fashion, it is a big name in the ready-made garment industry besides expanding into home furnishing, jewellery, energy and real estate. Its chairman, Lalit Gulati was the president of the ownerss association, Apparel Exporters and Manufacturers Association. Its production units cover 400,000 sq. feet area, and has a production capacity of 6 million garments per year and a turn over of US $ 60 million. Its vision statement says that it seeks to maintain a balance between ethical values and corporate objectives and that it takes pride in the human resource that it has. It counts its buyers from the US, UK, Canada, Europe and Australia, among them being big corporate players like Gap, Banana Republic, Marks &Spencer, Abercrombie &Fitch, and Country Road. How can we include accidents under the casualties of a class war? The majority of industrial accidents in India are attributable to poor health and safety conditions in factories, toxic materials, absence of protective clothing and equipment, lack of training or awareness on safety issues, and overwork, exhaustion and stress - all of which lead to lack of concentration on the job. An apology for Health and Safety standards, reasonable hours and workload are stipulated in the ineffectual labour laws that those so angry at worker discontent want to do away with. Random Checks by factory inspectors from the Labour Commissioners office have been seen as a source of corruption because apparently factory managements were being forced to cough up bribes in exchange of certificates of compliance with health and safety norms. The solution successfully argued for by managements to this predicament is not a reform of procedures aimed at making extortion by inspectors more difficult, but an abolition of all inspections altogether. Now managements, in Haryana, for instance are required to make voluntary disclosures of their health and safety standards. Naturally, few factories ever find their own safety standards wanting, and so, if injuries, or even fatal accidents occur, the fault is seen to lie with the workers poor work-performance rather than with a hazardous work environment or process. Injuries to contract workers are never recorded, fatalities are hushed up, and even permanent workers, when injured on the job are never sure of getting the medical attention they need because employers rarely fulfill their obligations towards the ESI funds meant to act as a safety net for the medical expenses of injured or sick workers. In an award winning series of reports on health and safety issues in the workplace in Mint, journalist Maitreyee Handique points out that according to the Directorate General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Instiutes (DGFASLI) in 2008 alone, Haryana reported 74

fatal injuries and 112 non fatal injuries in the work place. ESIC figures, says Handique, indicate that companies owe nearly Rs800 crore to ESIC in paymentsthe organizations 2007-08 annual report says 18,248 payment cases are pending. Pending ESIC payments translate into an injured or diseased worker who is not able get proper medical attention, and is therefore made unable to earn, he/she grows more vulnerable, gets hurt and sick, and gets deeper in debt. Injury, stress, disease, mounting loans due to expenditure on medical bills and other expenses is also leading to a growing epidemic of suicide amongst the industrial working class in India, While there has been some media attention on the spate of suicides by migrant Indian workers in the Gulf, there is a growing recognition that suicide is not only a gulf problem as far as Industrial workers are concerned. Work related stress leading to suicide is increasingly being reported for Textile workers in Tirupur, workers in the Diamond industry in Gujarat, Transport and ex-Jute Mill workers in West Bengal. But it is not only marginalized and unorganized workers who are committing suicide. In a recent study of suicide amongst workers in Central India, the anthropologist Jonathan Parry has indicated that there are good grounds for supposing thatat least in certain pocketsthe urban suicide rate is as high, if not higher (than farmer suicides in rural India). In the industrial area around steel town of Bhilai, this has risen dramatically over the last 20 years and it is the aristocracy of public sector labour that is significantly most susceptible. This is ultimately attributable to the liberalisation of the economy and the consequent downsizing of this workforce, which has led to a crisis in the reproduction of class status. Such workers are privileged; think of themselves as different from the informal sector labour class and fear sinking into it. Suicides are significantly underreported and the official statistics are systematically inflected by fear of the police and the law, which encourage both concealment and the deliberate obfuscation of likely motives, and almost certainly increase the lethal probabilities of suicide attempts. Once again, the shadow of suicide has not left Maruti Suzuki alone. Consider this report (Maruti Strike Affected his Salary, Wife Committed Suicide) on the NDTV website on the 11th of October, 2011 A call centre manager, whose husband is an officer with auto makers Suzuki, committed suicide allegedly after a fight over domestic finances. Her husband was apparently not getting his salary in the wake of the continuing strike in Maruti Suzuki India Ltds Manesar plant, (in October 2011) police said. Ritu Sharma, 27, was working with GE Money. She allegedly consumed a poisonous substance, police said. She has left a suicide note blaming no one for her extreme step.

Ritu, associate manager with a BPO, was living with her husband Vikram in a rented accommodation in Sector 40 of this Haryana town, a suburb of Delhi. Ritus parents stay in Delhis Sagarpur area, while Vikram belongs to Haryanas Bhiwani district. He works in one of the three plants of Suzuki in Gurgaon as assistant manager sales (planning). Vikram was without salary possibly due to the on-going strike in Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) Manesar plant, said Rakesh, a relative. Anil Munjal, vice president Suzuki Motorcycles, the employer company, refused to comment on the issue. Or, consider this report (Japanese National Hangs Himself in Gurgaon) in the Times of India of September 20, 2011 A Japanese national committed suicide by hanging himself in Gurgaons DLF Phase II area early on Sunday morning. Though no suicide note has been found, police have ruled out any foul play in the incident. The deceased, identified as Kishi Takahiro, 27, had come to India 15 days ago from Japan on an official assignment. He worked with a Japanese company, Kansai, which supplies paints and chemicals to Marutis plant in Gurgaon. According to the police, Takahiro tore his uniform and used it to hang himself from the bathrooms ceiling of his flat in DLF Phase II. He was living in the flat, C-111, Beverly Park, along with two colleagues. The incident was discovered when Takahiro did not come out of the room at the time of breakfast on Sunday morning. Confirming the incident, a corporate communication executive of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), said : The company has nothing to do with the incident. The mans family has been informed about the incident by the local official of Kansai and his father is planning to fly to India soon to take the body back to Japan. Worker, Manager, Migrant, Local, Jat, Gujar, Indian, Japanese, Man, Woman Death treats everyone with exemplary equity, in the end, after the fire in the factory has cooled, there are only ashes, it is only life, and the wage that makes life possible that maintains the fiction of inequality, and looks for gold teeth in the debris. Day after day, as the names slide off the ESI registers and muster rolls, a legion of ghosts gathers on the shop-floor. Mortality statistics keep pace with production figures. PostMortem reports elope with missing salary slips as the shy compliance reports of health and safety measures look on wistfully. The risque, robust dance of the seemingly inevitable trio

of death, taxes and wage-slavery pauses, straining to listen for the music of the machines on the assembly line. It hears silence instead. Could it be that a spectre is haunting our factories ?

DIFFICULTIES FOR LABOURS

Good conduct bond September 6, 2011 Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today said it would not resume full-scale production at its Manesar plant till workers sign a 'good conduct bond'. The condition has been placed by the company to ensure there is no repeat of quality issues that have surfaced at the plant. Maruti hired 100 new workers for troubled Manesar plant .Sept 13, 2011 Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said it would hire 100 new permanent employees today for its troubled Manesar plant to replace those who have refused to sign the good conduct bond. "Up to 100 new permanent workers will be recruited today," a company spokesperson said, adding so far 103 existing workers have signed the bond and resumed duties. With the standoff between the management and labour that started on August 29 continuing, the company had brought in 50 ITI-trained and experienced workers yesterday at the plant taking the total workforce to 1,100 people. MSI has about 2,500 workers the Manesar plant, out of which nearly 1,000 are permanent. Labour leaders contend the lack of union activity in the industrial sector is because of large-scale suppression of labour rights and union voices. Says Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the CPI-supported AITUC, Managements do not want to have unions. They want to make the unions subservient to their interests and compel the workers to be part of a union controlled by them. Adds Dipankar Mukherjee, secretary, CITU, Post-1991, all companies, be they mncs or Indian, have not wanted unions to be formed. Its a pattern among new companies als o, they either do not want unions or have pocket unions who support the management. The fact that incidents of flash strikes or even violent attacks on members of the management have not yet dissipated is testimony to the fact that all is not well on the labour front. The corporate sector, however, disagrees with this view, contending that best management practices are being followed. As Y.K. Modi, chairman and CEO of the Great Eastern Energy Corporation and a former FICCI president, puts it, The very fact that industries everywhere are generally having uninterrupted activity without labour trouble illustrates that there have been good practices mostly. Since the issue at Manesar was amicably settled through discussion, theres no reason to react on this matter.... I do not see the emergence of an era of nationwide militant trade unionism. The fact that 65 unions in the nearby industrial belts of Noida, Dharuhera, Manesar and Gurgaon had voiced their support and about one lakh workers from 50-odd industrial units

in these areas had decided to go on fast last Friday reflects a different workers perspective. Interestingly, many of these companies are associated with the automobile industry. Although the strike at Maruti has been called off and the matter resolved for the time being, there are hushed discussions across companies on the way managements handle workers and trade union issues. Says BMS spokes person Amar Nath Dogra, A strike is not the first but the last option for workers. If it happened, it was because there were issues with the way the management dealt with workers demands. There is a mechanism where workers and management recognise unions and decisions are taken with mutual discussion. We are concerned about the way the company handled the situation. Experts stress that the trend of hiring workers on contract rather than taking them in as permanent employees gives company managements the right to hire and fire on issues of performance or in times of recession, something not easy in case of permanent employees under Indian laws. According to rough estimates, over 50 per cent of workers in most of the large companies are on contract and do not have rights to join unions or can only join one that is recognised, even suggested, by the management. The general view among workers is that managements cannot dictate which unions workers should get affiliated to as it is their right to register or join a union. Says Mukherjee, Employees have the right to form unions. Labour laws do not give managements the right to dictate which union the workers should join or what their political leanings should be. The demand for a new union at Marutis Manesar unit may be a signal of discontent amongst workers regarding management practices and their own rights and the lack of a redressal mechanism. Coen Kompier, labour standards specialist with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), says, In general and compared to many other countries, the industrial relations system in India is very confrontational, which harms the interests of all parties.... A new era in the trade union movement will happen only if unions can operate in full freedom. The CPIs Dasgupta remains optimistic that the Maruti strike will open up the scope of the trade union movement and will work towards unity of workers and inspire them in future. Given the fact that the 13-day strike led to production losses of over 12,000 cars and business losses of over Rs 400 crore, the corporate sector obviously has a different view. One which is strengthened by the fact that apart from Maruti, vendors and companies associated with it also suffered significant losses. Industrial disputes anywhere are bad. These cause losses for both workers and investors. Consumers too face problems. All nations are competing against each other for market dominance. Any disturbance affecting productivity is bad, points out Modi.

So whats the way forward for companies and workers? Modi feels there must be more effective utilisation of industrial dispute resolutions as contained in the ILO governing council resolution on tripartite consultation convention 1976, a part of the ILO Plan of Action 2010-16. Considering that neither the BJP-led NDA government nor the Congress-led UPA one has shown any political will to pursue labour reforms, including ensuring that workers (whether permanent or contractual) are given their legal dues, it may finally fall on the workers and union leaders to chart their own course. Unless, of course, the government wakes up to the need to strike an equitable balance .

LEARNING FROM STRIKES

The recent unrest in Maruti's Manesar plant should not be seen as an aberration or a mere industrial dispute. It is, in fact, an indicator of a new set of challenges facing the Indian industry challenges which both the Government and the industry can ignore only at their peril. The National Manufacturing Policy calls for an increase in the contribution of manufacturing to GDP from 16 per cent to 25 per cent. The policy will remain only on paper unless it takes into account some of the social aspects, as reflected in the Maruti unrest. ROLE OF ASPIRATIONS At the core of this unrest is a heady cocktail of a number of ingredients. A young labour force (reflective of the country's demography), with aspirations shaped by the environment around them, is an important factor. An affluent Gurgaon co-exists with stark living conditions in villages around Gurgaon, which is where the bulk of the workforce resides. These aspirations are accentuated by rising consumerism. The young workforce is not willing to wait for five or ten years for the prosperity to be shared with them. They further feel discriminated against when their wages are compared with that of workers in Maruti's main factory near Gurgaon, where wages are in the vicinity of Rs 40,000 per month, albeit achieved after 25 years and numerous wage settlements. These aspirations and a sense of unfairness are further fuelled by political parties and their trade unions. These so-called self-appointed guardians of the working class' find it easier to leverage the articulate 8 per cent of the working population in the organised sector, rather than the 90 per cent-plus unorganised labour. Incidentally, the average gross compensation of Rs 25,000 per month, paid to regular workers by Maruti at a relatively new unit in Manesar to a new workforce, is by no means an amount to be scoffed at! The Government is also silent on the piquant issue of amending the Trade Union Act. The laws on union recognition; role of outsiders (read non-employees') in trade unions, holding union leadership accountable for violence by members/illegal strikes, gheraos, and so on; bringing in transparency and democracy in the functioning of unions are issues on which the Labour Ministry is hesitating to act, for fear of antagonising the trade union leadership.

CONCLUSION
1. According to management the strike was illegal. The workers had not given any notice to the management .Also, those who applied for registration of a new .union, which is separate from that of the Gurgaon plant, did not receive permission or were registered 2. The strike was banned eventually by Labour court. After several rounds of negotiations including a referral of the matter to the Haryana Chief Minister, them management appeared to have conceded some of the points the striking workers had raised. 3. The company was ready to take back the dismissed employees, but would subject them to disciplinary action. In instead of 8 days wage cut they only cut 3 day wage (later reduced to 1day). The strike was called off after 16 days and puja was performed on 17thday. 4. A new Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSUE)was formed .The management though said it had the Haryana Chief Ministers assurance that it will not allow the formation of a new union, but the workers point out that this is their right and they are prepared to move the court if the state government refused them permission .

REFERENCES
1. Whistle Blower Policy, http://www.marutisuzuki.com/whistle-blower-policy.aspx, accessed November 20, 2011 2. Transcript of the interview available at Money Control site, http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/maruti-strike-normalcy-may-be-restoredsoon-says-aituc_557967.html, accessed November 20, 2011 3. See pamphlet released by Workers Unity Trade Union published in Revolutionary Democracy Vol. XVI, No. 1, April, 2010 site at http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv16n1/rico.htm, accessed November 20, 2011 4. Press Trust of India release, 14th of June 2011 5. Maruti attempts to curtail union power in Manesar, Sunday Guardian, http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/maruti-attempts-to-curtail-union-powerin-manesar