India: Wildcat strike at Maruti Suzuki continues, may spread

The strike at the Indian carmaker's Manesar plant has entered its sixth day, with threats of similar strikes at other plants being made.

Submitted by Django on June 9, 2011

The wildcat strike exploded a week ago, with around 2,000 workers demanding the recognition of a new union - Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) - formed by those working at the Manesar plant, among other things.

Around 1,000 workers from different firms in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt gathered at the gate of MSI's Manesar plant today to express solidarity with the MSEU strikers.

Meanwhile a committee of representatives from workers' organisations in the Gurgaon-Manesar region has been formed to support the strike, and has declared its intention to join the strike if their demands are not met.

"If the issues are not resolved immediately, then a similar strike can happen in other factories in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt," AITUC Gurgaon District Secretary Harjeet Grover, who is also the General Secretary of HMSI Employees Union, told the Indian press.

He said a joint committee comprising representatives of all trade unions and various elected members from unions in different companies, including Hero Honda, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) and Rico Auto, has been formed to support the MSI workers.

On the sixth day of the strike, it has resulted in the production loss of 5,400 cars.

Comments

Steven.

13 years 5 months ago

Submitted by Steven. on June 9, 2011

That's a great photo!

That's a great photo!

Django

13 years 5 months ago

Submitted by Django on June 12, 2011

Quote: ET reported that the

ET reported that the strike by workers at Maruti Suzuki at its Manesar factory is threatening to spread to other auto and component makers in the Manesar Gurgaon belt, which makes about half of all the cars and bikes in the country.

The Maruti workers’ demand for an independent workers’ union has struck a sympathetic chord among workers in neighboring units including Hero Honda, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter, Rico Auto, Omaxe Auto and Lumax Industries.

As per report, unions at these companies are now threatening to strike work against their respective companies.

Mr Bhagwan Malik HMSI Employees Union’s secretary said that “We have decided to call a one day strike to protest against the indecisive Maruti management. We will give them some time before taking a final call on the issue.”

Mr Raj Kumar president of Rico Auto’s workers union at the Daruhera plant near Manesar said that “If Maruti Suzuki fails to act on workers’ demands, we will resort to a strike at our plants in coming days.”

Mr Kamal Sharma Employees’ Union president at Hero Honda’s Daruhera plant said that “We will extend all support to Maruti employees and may go on strike to express our solidarity. If required, we will come to a common location and protest for joint demands.”

Workers from these companies and about two dozen other ancillary units here joined the protest outside Maruti’s Manesar plant on Thursday.

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