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09 November, 2011 Workers at Maruti Suzuki’s plant supplying engines for its best-selling models have deliberately slowed production to protest unsatisfactory resolution to the recent labour unrest, spelling further trouble for the country’s biggest carmaker.
Output has dropped to 60 percent at the company’s vendor Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL), which is its sole supplier of diesel engines, since the 13-day strike ended on October 19. This means a further delay in delivery of models such as the diesel-driven Suzuki hatchback and the midsized Suzuki Dzire, the backlog for which already stretches over nine months.
The SPIL workers are peeved at the management’s failure to reinstate their three union functionaries and arrive at a final settlement to their due wage revision. SPIL is owned 70 percent by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp and the rest by Maruti Suzuki India.
“There have been no proactive steps from the SPIL management to speedily address workers’ issues and sort out the matter at the earliest,” Subey Singh Yadav, president of the workers’ union said.
Yadav said the pending inquiry against him and two of his colleagues is unlikely to foster trust between the management and the workers. “It’s a management-led process. Much cannot be expected in terms of transparency or impartial inquiry,” he said. The SPIL management refused to comment.
The workers say they had initially planned to continue their strike on demands of immediate reinstatement of Yadav and the others, but were swayed by management’s assurances of a lenient action. “All workers stand by the basic demand of getting back all their leaders.
The SPIL management has been apprised of the situation to settle all pending issues at the earliest,” Netra Pal Singh, who assembles engines on SPIL’s shop floor said, refusing to rule out strikes in future.
The workers at SPIL do not foresee a situation similar to Maruti Suzuki’s car plant in Manesar, where the entire team of 30 workers resigned and took severance package of at least Rs 16 lakh each last week.
The workers at the Manesar car plant had adopted a similar go-slow policy which led to a sharp decline in production to almost half, which prompted the company to enforce the Good Conduct Bond that led to the 33-day strike.
SPIL, with an annual capacity of three lakh engines and transmission, is critical to Maruti Suzuki because frequent petrol price hikes have led to a steep increase in demand for diesel-driven cars.

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19 October, 2011 Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday admitted that the company needs to learn how to deal with a young workforce as it grapples with frequent labour issues at its Manesar plant.
The company, which has witnessed three prolonged labour issues at the plant this year, including the ongoing strike, also blamed inexperienced workers for the trouble, saying they need to “have some respect for law”.
“When you look at this entire situation, then we admit (there is a need) for us to bring in adaptability in a young population that is very, very young,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Executive Officer (Administration) S Y Siddiqui told reporters on the sidelines of a CII HR Summit in New Delhi.
He said the average age of the Manesar plant workers is roughly about 24-25 years.
“I think somewhere some learning for us also (is required) on how to deal with the young people... In that sense, maybe some more education should have been there from our side,” Siddiqui added.
Admitting that with better understanding, the gaps could have been addressed earlier, he said: “Perhaps, going forward... (the emphasis will be) on more education of workers. It is a question of how you create an environment and how you adapt to it. It is a two-way process.”
He, however, said the young workers are also equally responsible for the ongoing problems. Siddiqui said out of a total employee population of 9,100 people in MSI, “We have a specific problem with 1,500 people.”
“I think definitely, it must be somewhere more from the side of the young inexperienced workers and I think it is typically a question of capability to adjust and adapt and have some respect for law,” he said.
The first labour strike at MSI”s Manesar plant in June this year lasted for 13 days. This was followed by a 33-day-long standoff from August 29-October 1. The latest strike broke out on October 7.
The workers have demanded recognition of their union, the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union, which was rejected by the management. They are also demanding the reinstatement of 1,200 casual workers and all permanent workers dismissed or suspended during the different stirs.

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21 October, 2011 The 14-day-long strike at Maruti Suzuki India’s Manesar plant has been called off this morning following a tripartite agreement between the management, workers and the Haryana Government.
As part of the agreement, the management has agreed to take back 64 permanent workers but another 30 will remain suspended. It has also been agreed that around 1,200 casual workers would also be reinstated, sources privy to the talks said.
Setting up of two committees for grievance rederssal and labour welfare was also agreed in order to provide a harmonious working environment at the plant. The agreement came at the end of several rounds of talks, since Wednesday in the presence of senior officials of the Haryana government.
Before reaching the agreement, it is understood that MSI management individually considered the cases of all employees against whom disciplinary action had been taken and evaluated the severity of indiscipline in each case.
Wherever the charges were not serious, the sources said, MSI management decided to take back the employees. The agreement provides that 64 employees will be taken back, they said. “However, in case of another 30 employees, the charges were found to be of serious nature. The agreement provides that these employees are suspended,” a source said.
As far as the casual workers are concerned, the MSI agreed to take them back to meet requirements of the ongoing expansion at the Manesar plant.
Workers at the plant have been on strike since October 7 demanding reinstatement of about 1,200 casual workers and 44 permenant workers who have been suspended following an agreement signed on October 1 to end a 33-day-long standoff, along with 50 workers who have been dismissed or suspended during the current stir. As per the agreement, workers will face no work, no pay for the duration of the strike.
The agreement also provides for the setting up of a ‘Labour Welfare Committee’ to promote measures for good relations between the management and workers. The committee will comprise members from the management as well as workers. It is understood that the company has also agreed to arrange for transport services for workers in line with shift timings.
Workers at Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL) and Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL) who had also gone on strike from October 7 in support of their colleagues at Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) have also agreed to call off their strike. The company said it produced 1,997 vehicles at the Gurgaon and Manesar facilities on Thursday with the Manesar plant rolling out 200 cars with 600 workers on duty.
MSI board will be meeting on October 29 to consider among other things, a proposal for setting up of a new plant in Gujarat.

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29 September, 2011 A fresh round of talks to end the month-long unrest at the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest carmaker, remained inconclusive on Wednesday.
The negotiations between the company and the representatives of Gurgaon plant-based Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU) and workers of the Manesar unit yielded little result, triggering the possibility of fresh industrial protests in the region.
Union workers at the Gurgaon plant said they were still working with the Maruti management to resolve the crisis. “We have had several rounds of talks, but the issue is struck on the reinstatement of all the 62 sacked workers. While Maruti has agreed to take back 18 trainee workers and may convert the status of some dismissed workers to suspension, we are expecting some positive outcome from the negotiations,” MUKU general secretary Kuldeep said.
“We would decide our course of action in a day or two as we are still hopeful of some positive outcome from the current round of negotiations,” said Rajesh Kumar, general secretary of Suzuki Powertrain India Employees Union, though he did not rule out a flash protest in a day or two if the standoff continues.

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29 September, 2011 Car maker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said it has started the second shift production at the second unit inside the Manesar facility even as talks between the management and workers’ representatives to end the month-long impasse remained inconclusive.
The discussion between senior company officials and the recognised workers’ body Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU), which is negotiating on behalf of the Manesar plant employees, failed yesterday as workers continued to press for taking back all 62 dismissed and suspended people that the management refused.
“The management had accepted to take back 18 employees, while it decided to take disciplinary actions against the rest. However, the workers are demanding to take back all of them and that cannot happen,” a source close to the development told PTI.
With the management refusing to hold direct talks with the Manesar plant workers, whose demand for recognising a new body Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) has been rejected, the workers had authorised MUKU to negotiate on their behalf.
The company has so far dismissed 33 workers and suspended 29 on charges of sabotage and deliberate quality compromise. In the meantime, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Wednesday held a protest rally in front of the plant in solidarity with agitators.
Meanwhile, MSI said it has started the ‘B’ shift at the second plant at Manesar on Wednesday.
“The company has also started production of A-Star at Manesar plants today. This is in line with the company’s decision to further scale up production and resume manufacturing other models also at Manesar plants,” it added. Day before yesterday, it resumed production of sedan SX4 at the unit. The company also rolled out 700 units of its hatchback Swift on Wednesday. “This takes the cumulative Swift production since August 31, 2011, to over 10,000 units,” it added.
The deadlock between MSI management and workers of the Manesar plant has been continuing since August 29, when the company prevented them from entering the factory premises unless they signed a ‘good conduct’ bond, following alleged sabotage and deliberate compromise on the quality of cars being produced.

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21 September, 2011 Striking workers at the Manesar plant refused to hold negotiations with the Maruti Suzuki management on Tuesday, prompting a state government mediator to blame them for the breakdown of peace talks.
Haryana labour minister SCL Sharma, who was mediating on behalf of the state government, said, “The workers are not agreeing to come back to work unless all their 62 colleagues, who were suspended, were taken back. All this is difficult as criminal cases have been lodged against many of them.”
The state government also released three leaders of the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union in an effort to end the 23-day-old industrial stir that has dented Haryana’s image as a peaceful investment destination. The MSI management and workers have been locked in a stand-off since August 29, when the management prevented workers from entering the factory premises unless they signed a good conduct bond.
On Tuesday, the workers at the Manesar plant submitted a petition to Gurgaon deputy commissioner PC Meena, seeking his help in resolving the ongoing crisis. A meeting of the joint action committee, an apex body of all workers’ unions in the Manesar-Gurgaon belt, will be held on Wednesday to chalk out the future course of action, said people close to the unions. The union leaders released on bail included president Sonu Gujjar and general secretary Shiv Kumar.
Meanwhile, Maruti rolled out 620 Swifts at the Manesar and Gurgaon plants on Tuesday, up from a day earlier and close to its targeted level. The country’s top carmaker said about 1,100 people were working on the production line at Manesar, where two plants are operating currently. The workforce included supervisors, engineers and trained hands brought in from the Gurgaon plant, which is functioning normally.

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Wednesday, June 15, 2011, AutomotiveWorld.com

An official at Kumho Tire's plant in Changchun City, in China's Jilin Province, has said that the pl...

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