Violence at Maruti Manesar plant: One dead, 40 injured

[pmaitra]

SOB, here is some insight into the Honda problem:

1c. Dispute at Honda HMSI

HMSI currently has 1,872 regular workers and another 2,500 on contract. Honda HMSI plant was affected by the disputes at Rico and Sunbeam due to lack of parts – but there was a 'home-grown' conflict going on, as well. The Honda workers union and Honda management were in process of negotiating a three years wage agreement. The management accused the union of using a go-slow tactic at the new third production assembly line, involving 40 permanents and 100 casuals, in order to put pressure on the management.

On 10th of October HMSI management announced that production at the plant is down by more than 50 per cent and that the new line for vehicles – the third one since production began – has failed to take off. "This means a production loss of almost 600 two-wheelers per day. Overall, we are equipped to roll out 4,350 vehicles a day but we are doing only a little over 2,000 units because of the workers' attitude," an HSMI official said. While no concrete figures are available, it is estimated that the company has suffered a loss of around 250 crore Rs.

Mohan Deepak, VP for Industrial Relations at HMSI, said the average cost-to-company (CTC) for a shop-floor worker is currently around Rs 25,000. According to HSMI management the wage demands of the union will push their CTC higher than shop floor workers at Hero Honda, the current market leaders with stronger business and production figures.

On 27th of October 2009 union and management enter an agreement on 3-years wage contract including "performance reward scheme.

Source: Gurgaon workers unrest: Background, features, chronology, and economic notes on India's automobile industry at Sanhati

My questions are:

• How come Honda was running with more contract workers than regular workers? More than 50% workers are contingency workers, that means their business model is contingency based. This is insane!
• Why aren't companies willing to take full responsibility of workers, yet are expecting them to take full ownership of the car production? This is like McDonald's in the US. Get hired today, get fired tomorrow. They want to manufacture automobiles with that policy?
• The contract workers can be laid off anytime, so what about their job security?
• If these people at Honda cannot afford to make their large workforce regular, why don't they get some robots to do their jobs instead? They are doing this at BMW Factory in South Carolina (I have been there).
• Also, speaking of the management, were more than 50% of them contract workers, or were all settled in secured jobs?

The entire setup is mind numbingly stupid.

 

[pmaitra]

SOB, I will await your response to my questions. I gotta go to bed now. I think this is a nice opportunity to actually understand what's going on, if we really want to find the root cause of the problem instead of blaming anyone without knowing the details.

 

[sob]

Ok, I was assuming most of the workers being semi skilled would be locals. I stand corrected.


Perhaps you are correct. I want to ask, how do you know 'those that don't want to work' are locals? Also, how do you know they do not want to work? Again you could be correct, but citations would help.

During the last couple of IR problems, during TV interviews and reports in media showed that most of the leaders come from surrounding villages. That is my source.

"They don't want to work," is too common an excuse these days, to be frank. I hear it everywhere.

It is quite a generic statement, but this is what I hear from my friend who is in charge of HR at Honda Manesar.

The per capita income of Gurgaon is Rs. 1,22,212, 3rd highest in India. I think a salary of 17,000 is just about right.

If that is true, then they were being unreasonable.

Point noted.


These points that you mentioned, are good to know. I am assuming they are not related to that casteist remark made by a supervisor, right?

Regarding Casteist remarks, it is not substantiated. Charges will fly from both sides. So it is better not to assume anything. If made then it was the wrong thing to do.

 

[sob]

SOB, I will await your response to my questions. I gotta go to bed now. I think this is a nice opportunity to actually understand what's going on, if we really want to find the root cause of the problem instead of blaming anyone without knowing the details.

Sorry got involved in some stupid office politics, had to dose the fire. Will reply to your points.

 

[sob]

SOB, here is some insight into the Honda problem:



Source: Gurgaon workers unrest: Background, features, chronology, and economic notes on India's automobile industry at Sanhati

My questions are:

• How come Honda was running with more contract workers than regular workers? More than 50% workers are contingency workers, that means their business model is contingency based. This is insane!
• Why aren't companies willing to take full responsibility of workers, yet are expecting them to take full ownership of the car production? This is like McDonald's in the US. Get hired today, get fired tomorrow. They want to manufacture automobiles with that policy?
• The contract workers can be laid off anytime, so what about their job security?
• If these people at Honda cannot afford to make their large workforce regular, why don't they get some robots to do their jobs instead? They are doing this at BMW Factory in South Carolina (I have been there).
• Also, speaking of the management, were more than 50% of them contract workers, or were all settled in secured jobs?

The entire setup is mind numbingly stupid.

Yes this contract labour thing is quite stupid. But this is as a result of the lack of reforms in the labour laws. Even if the plant is on the verge of shutdown due to lack of orders or any other issue, you cannot retrench staff. You have to keep them on the payroll till eternity.

Also there is a system in place in most of these companies wherein they slowly absorb some of the contract labours. These contract labours are supplied by a company or an individual. The company which hires them has to give minimum wages as prescribed by the GOI, and also they have to pay for the ESI/medical costs every month.

I also do not agree with this contract thing, but there is another side of the story. Today there is a shortage of skilled workers. Many times it is these contract labours who fill in the gap, and as I mentioned above some of them do get absorbed. But it is also true that most of the contract labour is not involved in the final assembly line.

 

[Mad Indian]

These points that you mentioned, are good to know. I am assuming they are not related to that casteist remark made by a supervisor, right?

You have no idea how this castiest remark card can be misused by the lower castes. Anyway, its hard to tell whose whose fault it is without an official unbiased inquiry.

For now, I wont hold the superwiser guilty.

 

[Predator]

@pmaitra take a look at the other articles at the site[sanhati.com] you linked to

sanhati.com is an out and out maoist site, it even goes to the extent of calling murderer kishenji as a martyr

it makes my suspicion more stronger that there is a maoist element which is inciting the workers to resort to violence using petty issues as a cover

 

[lcatejas]

Why they allow worker union.(how these paid unions can play with others jobs)...great news for those who did it and this will help maruti to shift to other state ...

 

[pmaitra]

@pmaitra take a look at the other articles at the site[sanhati.com] you linked to

sanhati.com is an out and out maoist site, it even goes to the extent of calling murderer kishenji as a martyr

it makes my suspicion more stronger that there is a maoist element which is inciting the workers to resort to violence using petty issues as a cover

I am very much against Maoists, but that doesn't change the fact that the Honda plant was being run in a very silly fashion.

Ok, fine, let us forget about that site. How about these reports?
Honda Case
http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2009/10/07/stories/2009100750060200.htm

Anyway, SOB gave a very good response.

We need reform in the labour laws.

 

[Mad Indian]

Why they allow worker union.(how these paid unions can play with others jobs)...great news for those who did it and this will help maruti to shift to other state ...

Good for us. We will invite them with open arms

 

[pmaitra]

Regarding Casteist remarks, it is not substantiated. Charges will fly from both sides. So it is better not to assume anything. If made then it was the wrong thing to do.

Regarding your second comment in red, I am sorry, they are prima facie; and unsubstantiated.

You heard from your friend, who is an HR, and that is your premise. If your friend was a worker, you would have heard something else. Some reporter heard that the supervisor at Manesar made a casteist remark, and reported in the news (which you say is unsubstantiated). Dichotomy - this is almost always the case.

Anyway, no further on this.

 

[Bhadra]

Our Labour laws are on communistcic and socialistic patterns. Prima facie there is nothing wrong as Labour jurisprudence and justcie demands "Democracy" in running the business in a society. But in India we have "Namak Haram" labour leaders who would do any thing to placate the management, politicians, Caste leaders and for the sake of local politics to make a place for themselves rather than for the welfare of the Labour. One Party Labour Union fights against the other. One Labour Union say in Honda factory may be paid by Maruti Industries in order to settle business rivalry. There is too much lumpen elements in unions. There is criminality in the unions as is evident from Manesar factory. Indian businessmen and MNCs know it well and pay their union leaders hefty amounts and exploit the labour. Recovery of more than a crore Rs from the Raid on a Union Leader recently a case in point.

This is called Capitalist Labour Unions. There is no such thing in china.
However, Indian Communist are super intellectuals to defend and run such criminal associations.

 

[pmaitra]

Our Labour laws are on communistcic and socialistsics patterns. Prima facie there is nothing wrong as Labour jurisprudence and justcie demands "Democracy" in running the business in a society. But in India we have "Namak Haram" labout leaders who would do any thing to placate the management, politicians, Caste leaders and for the sake of local politics to make a place for themselves rather than for the welfare of the Labour. One Party Labour Union fights against the other. One Labour Union say in Honda factory may be paid by Maruti Industries in order to settle business rivalary. There is too much lumpen elements in unions. There is criminality in the unions as is evident from Manesar factory.

Management, Union Leaders, Politicians - these are always a conniving bunch. They have to. The system is like that. You cannot do business if you are fair and straight. You will not be allowed to.

This is called Capitalist Labour Unions. There is no such thing in china.
However, Indian Communist are super intellectuals to defend and run such criminal associations.

You can call India communists anything you want. You have a problem in hand. Do you have a solution? Keep pointing fingers; no solution will ever come out of it.

 

[Predator]

I am very much against Maoists, but that doesn't change the fact that the Honda plant was being run in a very silly fashion.

Ok, fine, let us forget about that site. How about these reports?
Honda Case
The Hindu Business Line : Honda Motorcycle sees sales skidding 50% in Oct

Anyway, SOB gave a very good response.

We need reform in the labour laws.

this is not a new issue, in the past labour issues have been solved through talks, what was the need to resort to violence, the only people who benefit from violence are the ones who believe in overthrow of the current democratic political structure using workers as cannon fodder.

 

[pmaitra]

this is not a new issue, in the past labour issues have been solved through talks, what was the need to resort to violence, the only people who benefit from violence are the ones who believe in overthrow of the current democratic political structure using workers as cannon fodder.

Never mind, that is a Honda issue, and I mentioned that only because SOB brought it up.

The issue here is the Maruti plant. Labour issues, unions, pay hike demands, notwithstanding, these peripheral things are deflecting the issue at hand. The issue is a casteist remark starting a violence leading to one man's death, as reported by ToI.

 

[pmaitra]

Off topic posts have been moved here: http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/politics-society/39260-cpm-has-been-reduced-regional-party.html

Stay on topic.

 

[Zebra]

Good for us. We will invite them with open arms

What? Who? Where? When? How? Why?

What about MARUTI DARSHAN AT BAHUCHARAJI?

 

[Bhadra]

Labour Unions are primarily meant for:

# Soliciting voluntary participation
# Democratic participation by the labour in production.
#Participation of Labour in management.
# Encourage voluntary management practices.
# Welfare of Labour and increase in social standards.
# Increase social justice and prevent exploitation of Labour.
# Increase social stakes in the means of production.


Todys Labour Unions aim at.

#Increase income of Labour Leaders.
# Allow local politician and police to extort money from Industry.
# Create a vote banks.
# Be a crucial factor in Industrial rivalry.
# Create a space for ill fitting and unemployed workers of the political parties coming from Universities such as JNU or Jadhavpur university.
# Fester castism and regionalism amongst workers.
# Exploitation of workers by the leftists and rightists.
# Reserve leadership space for useless kith and kins of union leaders.
# And finally divide workers
So on and on....

 

[pmaitra]

^^

Thank you for a very objective post.

Perhaps we could debate what the solutions are to cure the ills involving today's labour union?

 

[Bhadra]

^^

Thank you for a very objective post.

Perhaps we could debate what the solutions are to cure the ills involving today's labour union?

The solution is that Party politics has to be isolated from the labour unions. For that Political parties must agree and reach a consensus that in order to to have healthy Labour practices, the Labour unions must be kept out of the ambit of Party politics.

Second measure is enforcement of Legislation. well meaning measures were enforcement by Labour Laws. There are numerous Labour inspectors and Labour courts. But all of them are big crooks and corrupt. If labour can get easy justice he would not resort to violence and illegal means of protest.

Third is, strong Corporate social responsibility. TATAs lead in that. Otherwise it is non existent.

These all are measures adopted in all welfare states such as Europe, some where more and somewhere less which under Nehru India tried to ape albeit miserably failed.

Today it is anarchy in spite of so much unemployment. The need of hour is to prevent undue exploitation as also make it affordable for industry to hire labour.