This document summarizes a case study on a 2011 strike by workers at Maruti Suzuki's factory in Manesar, India. The strike began on June 4th when 2,000 workers stopped work to demand recognition of a new independent union. It lasted 13 days, cost the company 6 billion rupees in lost production, and ended with some concessions from management but no formal union recognition. Tensions continued over the next months as management suspended more workers and imposed new rules, leading to additional strikes. The state government supported the company and declared the strikes illegal.

1. Case study on Maruthi Suzuki India
Ltd Employees Strike
Earlier, on June 4, workers at the
plant had gone on a 13-day-long
strike demanding the recognition of a
new union, the Maruti Suzuki
Employees Union (MSEU).

2. Introduction:
Differences in salary pay
In the Gurgaon plant the salary of
skilled workers adds to 30,000 –
40,000 Rs including the overtime and
incentives, whereas the skilled
labourers at Manesar get only
around 13,000 to 17,000 Rs.

3. From 4th to 17th of June 2011 around
2,000 young workers engaged in a wildcat
sit-down strike at Maruti Suzuki factory in
Manesar.
The two Maruti assembly plants
coordinate hundreds of local supplying
factories [2], the Manesar plant dominates
a new industrial area of major importance.

4. It was a hard strike. The workers gave no
notice to management, they stopped
production completely and around 2,000
workers stayed inside the factory for nearly two
weeks.
The strike ‘postponed’ the production of
13,200 cars and caused a loss of about 6 billion
Rs. (133 million USD / 100 million Euro). Maruti
Suzuki’s June sales figures dropped by 23 per
cent, the sharpest fall in two and a half years.

5. Workers continued the strike despite the police
stationed within the factory premises and despite
strike having been officially declared illegal by
Haryana government on 10th of June.
The strike stopped production at around 200
local supplying factories, but no active connections
were established between Maruti workers and the
wider work-force in the territory.

6. The main reasons for the defeat of the strike as
follows: workers raised direct demands, but early on
these demands were ‘integrated’ in the workers’ hope
that by formal recognition of an independent union their
material situation would improve.
An attack both by management and state, cutting of
electricity, isolation of workers by army of security
guards, declaring the strike formerly illegal and last but
not least by sacking the 11 ‘leaders’; the main unions
then offered ‘support’ and at the same time focussed
the struggle on the question of ‘taking back the leaders’
and ‘workers’ rights’ for representation.

7. The fate of the strike was handed over to the
‘negotiating forces’. It is inexpert to repeat the
phrase of ‘unfaithfulness’ of the main unions. It
evades the question of what gives them the power
to betray in the first place.
Haryana state sources a fair chunk of tax revenue
from Maruti Suzuki. In 2010 the company paid
around 13 billion Rs. tax to the regional state.

8. The Working Conditions
There are around 3,500 to 4,000 workers
employed in the factory, but their status differs
significantly.
 Around 900 to 1,300 workers are permanent
workers, around 800 to 1,000 trainees, around
400 apprentices and around 1,000 to 1,200
‘temporary’ workers hired through contractors.

9. Permanent workers at Manesar compared
their wages to the wages of permanent
workers at nearby Honda, Hero Honda or
Maruti Gurgaon plant and voiced anger about
the fact that they earn only half as much.
The production capacity of Maruti has gone
up from 10 lakh units in 2009-10 to 12.7 lakh
units in 2010-11, but our salary has not gone
up at all. Where is the incentive for hard
work?”

10.  If a worker is few minutes late, then his half day
salary is cut. If a worker takes one day leave, he
looses about 1,500 Rs to 2,000 Rs as salary cut in
various forms of incentives and allowances. If a
worker takes two day leave, he almost looses all the
incentives.
 These conditions form the background of the strike,
they form the background of the general situation of
workers in Gurgaon and beyond.

11. Development of the Strike
• The company knew that trouble was brewing, they
knew that some workers planned on registering a
separate union and the company had already
prepared legal documents for a possible expulsion of
workers from the premises.
• Maruti Suzuki management tried to back a single
union, the Maruti Suzuki Kamgar Union, for both
Gurgaon and Manesar plant.
• This union had been set-up by forces close to
management after the lock-out at Gurgaon plant in
2000/2001.

12. • “On 3rd of June, eleven leaders of the workers went
to Chandigarh to meet the Labour Department to
complete the formalities regarding registration of
our union on June 3, 2011. On the morning of that
day, the labour department officials faxed the news
of our application to the management.
• On the morning of June 4, 2011, through struggle,
we were able to retrieve some of the blank signed
papers from the management. By the afternoon, it
became clear that the management was using all
kind of tricks to break our unity. In such
circumstances, we were forced to go on flash tool
down strike from the afternoon of June 4, 2011.”

13. • On the 4th of June after the change between morning
and late shift around 2,000 workers stop work and
remain in factory. Later on, the C-shift would not be
refused entry by management and these workers
largely remained outside the factory.
• During this initial stage, workers raised various issues
and demands: low wages, incentive cuts, few breaks.
The workers have demanded that the temporary
workers should be given preference for permanent
posts in new departments, which the company is
currently building on the premises.

14. Management reaction
• On 5th and 6th of June management sealed the
gates and placed a row of security guards in front of
them in order to prevent exchange between workers
inside and outside, between workers and supporters
and media.
• Management also restricted water, food, electricity
and toilet access. Only after a demonstration outside
the gate on 6th of June, the food supply through
family and friends was permitted again.
• Eleven workers were officially dismissed on the 6th
of June. Police was deployed both inside and outside
the premises.

15. Entrance of mediators into issue
• On the 8th of June the main unions AITUC, CITU,
HMS, INTUC, UTUC formed a ‘joint action committee’
to ‘support’ the strike.
• Although this committee dominated by AITUC had
no formal link with neither the Maruti workers nor
the new Maruti union in formation, it became the
main broker and spokesperson of the strike.
• Often quoted ‘representatives’ were union leaders
from Honda HMSI, Hero Honda Dharuhera and Rico
Auto.

16. • On the 9th of June this action committee mobilised
“workers of 50 to 60 factories in Gurgaon”, around
1,000 to 2,000 union members gathered in front of
the gates.
• Sachdeva, secretary, AITUC, said, “As we are a major
union in this area, it’s our prime responsibility to
support any cause that involves the rights of our
affiliated workers.
• 10th of June the over-all pressure on the striking
workers increased and pushed them further into the
arms of the main unions.

17. State government supported MSIL
• “The Haryana government has, under the provisions
of the Industrial Depute Act, 1947, referred the
matter of ongoing strike in Maruti Suzuki Udyog Ltd,
Manesar, by the workers to the competent labour
court and has also passed the orders prohibiting the
continuance of the strike in the industrial unit,”
Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shiv
Charan Lal Sharma said in a statement. The strike
was officially called ‘illegal’.

18. Strike call off
• On the 16th of June Maruti management told the
media that it would try to ‘revive’ production lines in
the Gurgaon plant in case the strike dragged on for
longer – unnecessarily so, because a day later, on
17th of June, the dispute was settled.
• The workers were represented by leader of the
proposed new union Maruti Suzuki Employees Union
Shiv Kumar and national secretary of AITUC Sachdev.
“The company has now agreed that we would not be
asked to sign the paper.
• Also, the fact that Maruti took back the 11 workers
shows that our demands were met,” said Shiv
Kumar.

19. Strike again
• July 28, 2011 | 17:05 , Just over a month after they
called off a 13-day-long stir that resulted in a loss of
about Rs 630 crore, workers at Maruti Suzuki India's
Manesar plant went on strike again on Thursday
afternoon.
• The workers resorted to a strike when five of them
were suspended for "allegedly assaulting a
supervisor" on Wednesday.

20. • Workers of Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd and Suzuki
Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd, located in the Gurgaon-
Manesar industrial belt, declared a strike at 3-45 p.m
on Wednesday.
• Workers from Suzuki Castings — a part of Suzuki
Powertrain India Ltd — affiliated to the Suzuki
Powertrain India Employees' Union also joined the
strike.
• On Tuesday MSI management dismissed five more
workers “on charges of attacking on three
supervisors and a worker last Friday” and hired 100
strike breakers to replace workers who have refused
to sign the ‘good conduct bond’.

21. • Consequences:
• Haryana Labour Commissioner Satwanti Ahlawat
declared the government’s support for the company,
saying: “Whatever the bond that the management
(MSI) is asking its workers to sign is as per rule and
workers will have to sign it.”
• Isolated by the AITUC bureaucracy and under
pressure from the employers, over 100 locked-out
workers have signed the good conduct bond.

22. • October 13, 2011 Haryana government on declared
strike by workers at Maruti-Suzuki's Manesar plant
as illegal. The strike on Thursday entered seventh
day as workers continue to demand that the
management take back all suspended and casual
employees.
• Suzuki India Ltd. has incurred a revenue loss of 15
billion rupees ($306.7 million) since Aug. 29 due to
labor woes at one of its factories that have severely
impacted vehicle output at the country's largest car
maker by sales.

23. Negotiations
• The Haryana government signed separate pacts with
MSI and its arms — Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL)
and Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL) and
their respective workers' bodies to end the stir.
• Haryana government-brokered negotiations
between Maruti Suzuki India management and its
workers to end the standoff at MSI’s Manesar plant
failed today.

24. • Haryana Minister for Labour and Employment Shiv
Charan Lal Sharma held talks with the company’s
management and workers of the Manesar plant —
along with representatives of MSI’s recognised union
Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU) — through the
day but an agreement proved elusive.
• “The workers were apologetic about the production
loss that MSI has suffered and also about yesterday’s
violent incident, but they are insisting that the
dismissed and suspended colleagues must be taken
back,” Sharma said.

25. Conclusion
• In response to the workers request for transport, the company
agreed to provide bus services in line with shift timings.
• To address the concerns of the Manesar workers, the company
has agreed to set up a ‘grievance redressal committee’. The
committee will have representatives from the management and
the workers.
• A labour officer from the state government will be a permanent
invitee to it and review its proceedings.
• Maruti Suzuki has also agreed to the formation of a ‘labour
welfare committee’ to promote good relations between the
management and the workers. The committee will comprise
members of the management and the workers.

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