The terminated workers of Maruti Suzuki, Manesar, are holding a two-day hunger strike at the Gurugram DC office from 11-12 October. The workers are demanding to reinstate all Maruti Suzuki workers terminated since 2012, stop layoffs and lockouts, and give permanent employment to workers. The terminated workers have issued an open letter appealing to fellow workers, workers’ organisations and concerned citizens to join them in this struggle.
We are publishing the open letter of the terminated workers in solidarity to their demands and struggle.
Dear friends,
Many of you might know that Maruti Suzuki had terminated 546 permanent workers and 1,800 contract workers in 2012 after the death of a manager due to a fire at the company’s Manesar plant. We workers were terminated without any investigation, citing ‘loss of confidence’. Using the pretext of the incident, 213 of our fellow workers, including the leadership of our entire union were booked under various false cases and 149 workers were put in jail. In 2017; 117 workers were found innocent and acquitted by the Gurgaon sessions court. Yet our entire union body and our late companion Jialal were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment only on account of their being part of the union. Jialal and Pawan Kumar passed away while still serving their time in jail. After a long wait and continued legal battle, 11 of our comrades have over the past some months finally been released on bail after 10 years of being in jail.
On the other hand, 426 terminated workers are still fighting their cases in the labour court. A decade has gone by, yet we have received no justice from the courts. Despite all the efforts made by the union in the plant and the Maruti Suzuki Mazdoor Sangh (MSMS), the company management has refused to talk to the union on the issue of terminated workers. Be it under the Congress or the BJP, the Haryana government has sided with the management and repressed the workers throughout the course of or struggle. In such a situation, we have once again taken our struggle for justice to the streets. The solidarity shown to us by workers and concerned citizens from across the country and even other parts of the world has always been one of our biggest strengths, which is why we want to share with you some of our experiences and answer some questions that might be arising in your minds.
People often ask us, “What did you get out of this struggle other than losing jobs, getting jailed and repressed? Despite all this, why do you still want to fight?” Friends, it is true that we have faced many challenges in these years of struggle, yet, it is also true that whatever we have achieved has also come to us from this fight. No politician, electoral party or management has ever given us any relief or any rights. It was our unity that gave us the brief period to work in the company with dignity after our union was formed in March 2012. It was our struggle that saved us from being crushed under the weight of the company’s unquenchable thirst for profit. It was this struggle that brought justice to those among us who were thrown into jail for no crime. We are confident that through our struggle, we will once again get back the jobs which were unjustly snatched from us as ‘punishment’ for demanding our basic rights and dues.
We first started working in Maruti at a meagre monthly salary of not more than Rs 4,000. The pressure of work was such that healthy young workers would become frail and fall ill in two to three years. The speed of work at the production-line was such that even if a bottle of water was lying in front, you could not pick it up and drink. The supervisor and HR did not consider us workers as human beings, misbehaving with us on every small pretexts, slapping workers for small faults in production, using abusive language and humiliating us by asking us to squat holding our ears as punishment. There was no union and there was no means for us to put our issues forth before the management. We had a simple demand, that ‘our own independent union’ should become our voice, represent our issues before the management and lead the struggle for our rights.
Month after month the struggle went on, people were dismissed and taken back, the company gate was locked and forced open through struggle, leaders came and went and new leaders emerged, even those were imprisoned and yet new leaders came to the fore…! Permanent workers occupied the company demanding the reinstatement of contract workers. The workers of 12 companies in the belt occupied their companies in solidarity with our occupation and demands. We managed to register our union despite the company expelling around 2500 active workers, putting 149 workers in jail and turning all of IMT Manesar into a police cantonment. Our union survived the repression of 2012 and is active and with us in the struggle even today. After 2012, the wages of permanent workers in this industrial belt has increased rapidly and today the permanent workers of Maruti are able to live a life of dignity and convenience, which in fact is the right of every worker. Could these events have been imagined without our struggle? No.
However, the effects of a struggle last only as long as the struggle is alive. Today, the situation in Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera-Bawal industrial area is once again becoming like that before 2005. The management, forced to provide facilities to permanent workers, is bent on putting an end to permanent employment itself in the belt. Permanent workers are being laid off and forced to take voluntary retirements. From Belsonica, Nappino, Munjal Showa to RICO we are seeing countless examples of attacks on well established and active unions. The management has been deliberately delaying settlements on the demand notices submitted by unions. The registration of new unions has become more difficult than before and the process of giving notices to union members, or suspending or terminating them as soon as the union is formed, has intensified. In fact, efforts are on to eliminate the very possibility of union formation in the future by making the entire labour force temporary and transient. Today most of the production in this belt is being done by contract, casual, trainee, apprentice and fixed term workers.
Contract workers were with us in our struggle from the very first day. There was little difference between the condition of contract and permanent workers in our plant at that time. We worked side by side and our unity was our greatest strength. But today the management is trying to break the back of the labour movement by dividing workers into different categories, increasing the gap in their salaries and facilities. Old plants of the same company are being closed down and new plants are being set up where there are no permanent workers in production and the entire contract/casual workforce is replaced every six months. Many companies do not accept ITI degrees older than two-three years and young workers face a dismal, insecure and uncertain future.
Friends, when we first thought of forming a union, we did not hope for much beyond gaining some basic relief from our most pressing issues. The company owners of the entire region came out in support of the Maruti management to thwart our struggle. The governments of every party and the police administration worked nakedly in the company’s favour. Even the courts forgot all about the law and our constitutional rights and got busy re-instilling confidence among ‘the investors’. These experiences taught us that the life of any one worker cannot be improved while the whole system remains united against the working class and instead defends the capitalists. The atrocities being done against us by the company and the administration were an attempt to teach a lesson not only to us but to the entire working class.
Today the dismal situation prevailing from Gurgaon to Bawal is nothing but another face of this atrocity. To break this cycle of repression, we terminated workers of Maruti have come to Gurgaon from our villages and homes, and are holding a two-day hunger strike at the Gurugram DC office on 11-12 October. We appeal to all our fellow workers, all workers’ organisations and concerned citizens to join us in this struggle.
Our demands :-
– Reinstate all Maruti Suzuki workers terminated since 2012!
– Stop layoffs and lockouts, give permanent employment to all!
– Repeal the four anti-worker labour codes! Make laws in favour of workers!