The Hindu : NATIONAL / NEW DELHI : Sacked Maruti workers protest

The Hindu : NATIONAL / NEW DELHI : Sacked Maruti workers protest

Sacked Maruti workers protest

MOHAMMAD ALI

Despite the non-responsive attitude of the Haryana Government and the Maruti Suzuki management, the dismissed workers of the Manesar plant of the company have not lost hope. To bring to the attention of the political class their continued plight, they organised a protest at Jantar Mantar here on Wednesday.

After the July 18 violence at the Manesar plant in which one senior executive was killed, the company had terminated the services of 546 “permanent” and 1,800 “temporary” workers. The police arrested 149 of them, including the office-bearers of Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU), for alleged involvement in the violence.

Despite the fact that trade union groups were supporting them in their struggle for reinstatement and withdrawal of “false” cases against their jailed colleagues and leaders of the MSWU, the protesting workers said they needed to take their struggle “much more seriously”.

While addressing the protesters, Tapish of the Bigul Mazdoor Dasta said a much bigger nationwide struggle was needed possibly involving “a nationwide hartal” in all the factories across the country.

The protesting workers alleged that an all-out war has been waged against them by the Maruti Suzuki management in nexus with the Haryana Government because they expressed their right to form workers’ union and questioned the “illegal” practice of contract worker system.

Their demands include an unbiased judicial inquiry into the violent incident apart from the release of all their colleagues. They also demanded that workers union must be formed in the auto belt industrial region including Gurgaon, Manesar, Dharuhera, Bawal, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad.

From The Hindu, 20 December.