Automobile unions at Manesar support Maruti Suzuki workers' stir

The problems of Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, may aggravate in coming days, with a dozen worker unions in the country's largest automotive lending support to the industrial stir that was triggered by a directive asking workers to sign a 'good conduct bond'.

With the Maruti management unrelenting on the issue of mandatory endorsement of the conduct bond, the standoff threatens to snowball into a major industrial unrest in the Manesar-Gurgaon-Daruhera region. Besides Maruti Suzuki, Hero Honda, too, has plants in that belt. Both companies dominate their respective car and two-wheeler segments in India.

About 2,500 workers and representatives of over a dozen automotive companies, including Hero Honda, Rico Auto, Omax Auto, Endurance, FCC Rico, GKN Ltd, gathered at Manesar. They later decided to start a tool-down protest at their companies.

The employees union of subsidiary Suzuki Powertrain India and a few permanent workers from the main Gurgaon plant also joined the stir. "We have received support from workers within Maruti Suzuki itself and we are expecting more employees to join our struggle," said Sonu Gujjar, president of the Manesar plant's Maruti Suzuki Employees Union.

"We are here to support the stir as the company has failed to work out any solution. We would call for a tool down," Rajesh Kumar, general secretary of Suzuki Powertrain India Employees Union, told.