An Unfinished Revolution: The Fight For Workers’ Rights Continues

“Sir jee, I don't want any money to be deducted from my salary as PF-VF. Don't turn me into a permanent worker.” A spectacled Surendra Kaushik said with a confident voice that betrayed his pounding heart. “You can raise my salary without it as well.”

Kaushik was one of the 547 workers who were suspended with immediate effect from Maruti’s Manesar Plant in Haryana on 18th July 2012, after a suspected arson claimed the life of an HR manager, Awanish Kumar Dev, and several other managers suffered serious injuries. After being thrown out of work, Kaushik started working part-time with a private firm near Sonipat, where he drove the boss's car, took care of the inventory, and operated the computer. 

A well-meaning boss in a three-piece suit, seated in his Scandi-styled office, however, insisted. For a semi-skilled worker slogging day in and day out, having enough to sustain but not a single penny to save, becoming a permanent worker was considered the highest aim of life. But it also meant going through police verification and a thorough background check that could easily reveal his Maruti connection. 

The next day, when a diffident Kaushik went to the boss' office, thinking about all the suspected outcomes, termination was not the topmost on his list. He had thought that his boss would listen to him—perhaps even trust him—and give him a second chance. Instead, he was given two months’s advance and a warning to never return. 

The present-day strikes 

Kaushik told me in great detail as he and other workers sat on dusty mattresses in front of Manesar’s Tehsil Office, popping roasted chanas. The fervor around him erupts in sequential waves with slogans like Maruti Company Ke Purje Purje, Hame Batate Apne Kisse (Each part of the Maruti car tells its story from afar); No War But Class War. 

He is one of the workers participating in an indefinite strike wanting to be reinstated into their jobs. “Around 50 protests and demonstrations have happened in these past 12 years,” Khushi Ram, the convener of the Maruti  Suzuki Struggle Committee, told me over the phone earlier. “We are even planning for a relay hunger strike. We won’t take our strike back until we get our jobs back.”

What happened in Maruti’s Manesar plant that day?

On July 18, 2012, a long-standing struggle between workers and the management over the recognition of their union boiled over. A casteist slur to a worker, Jiya Lal, by a supervisor that morning sparked an outage. When Jiya Lal was summoned to his office to hand over his suspension letter, the union office bearers protested. The resulting tug of struggle led simmering rage among workers to erupt like molten lava, causing widespread damage to property and human life. 

547 permanent workers and 1800 contract workers were fired on the spot. Only 148 of them had their names in the investigation report submitted by Haryana Police. Others were merely terminated due to a ‘loss of confidence.’ The remaining workers were tried in the Labour Court, with 117 subsequently acquitted. When they were not reinstated despite not being proven guilty, they pleaded with the court for an intervention. The case remains pending. 

Violation of rights of workers 

According to the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act of 1970, contract workers should make up a minimal part of the workforce; they should have a salary structure, paid medical leave, and an incentive or bonus in addition to their basic pay. They should also not be required to perform "perennial" tasks.

However, at the Manesar plant, more than half the workers were contractual. A worker told me, under the condition of anonymity, "Almost 50 percent of our salaries were given as incentives." In between, a furious Ram interjected, "If, for example, the shift finishes at 3 pm and a person cannot work due to injury or any other reason from 2:30 pm, he would lose a half-day's pay. Just one leave meant losing 25% of your bonus.”

Even after these horrific actions, the workers all agreed that the inability to unionize was the worst of all. They believed that an independent union, unaffiliated with any political party, would strengthen their battle and allow for better negotiations with management on their demands.

The events leading up to the present-day strike

On September 18, when the strike began, the committee had planned to protest in front of the Maruti Suzuki plant. “A peaceful demonstration 500 meters away from Gate 2” the Labour Court had ordered after the management, foreseeing a considerable disruption, approached the court for an injunction. 

But when the 500-odd workers started marching up to the plant from the DC office, almost double the number of police personnel and four barricades didn't allow them. An altercation happened between the protestors and the police but to no avail. “We were so angry that we disrupted the first barrier,” said Katar Singh, another worker with a creased forehead and bulging neck veins. 

When they couldn't reach the plant, they were forced to choose another spot. The heavy downpour that day wetted their personal belongings. On top of that, there was no food. “All we could get was a packet of chana, even though they were very little,” Ram added. But that couldn't bog them down. They chose to gather in front of the Tehsil office. 

Election propaganda 

The initiation of the struggle coincided with the warm-up of electoral battles in Haryana. Many experts as well as exit polls suspected a change in the ruling party, and the workers believed that they stood a better chance of being heard. 

The BJP even used the workers’s struggle to mount their election propaganda. A video titled “Huda Sahab, Log Bhule Kodya” was circulating on social media, taking a jibe at Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the then Chief Minister. Moreover, even the three-yearly COD (Charter of Demand) for wage revision and other demands was scheduled to happen this year. 

Satish further told me that a delegation including the workers, union members, and management went to Manohar Khattar, the previous term’s Chief Minister, who told them to resolve the matter. The second time when they went to him, Khattar wasn't present. One of his subordinates advised them to not come twice. Even Nayab Saini, now the Chief Minister of Haryana, offered a sliver of hope, but nothing substantial came out of it. 

The struggle to find employment

Kaushik moved from one job to another, working on much lesser, entry-level salaries, but he could never sustain them. “I could never cross the three-month window test.” He told me cheekily, suggesting that even if he succeeded in hiding it initially, it would inevitably come up in his conversation with fellow workers and travel to the management. “Maruti didn't leave me even in Pune.” Satish, another worker guffawed, “I couldn't resist sharing about our Maruti struggle when some workers from another struggle approached me.”

“We gave Maruti the prime of our age; where do we go now? We were the first workers here. Only our hard work allowed the expansion of the factory from one plant to a three-plant gargantuan.” Most workers who were picked directly from the Industrial Training Institute in their early twenties have crossed the mark of 40, an age when their bodies have begun aching. They find themselves invalid in a way—just having the strength of muscles and tenacity of head but no actual skills. “A worker who bolts screws does that for the rest of his life. This is intentional on management’s part.” Ram argued. 

On the question, of whether they would be able to work, considering their age and changing technology, Satish told me that he learned to work as an apprentice in the Gurgaon factory, which was far less mechanized as compared to Manesar. “I learned quickly,” he said, adding that “age and technology are excuses commonly given by the management.” 

All of them have gotten employment in some way or another. Some have even started farming and keeping cows. But they are extremely low-paying when compared to the current inflation, at times lower than the salary they were getting in Maruti 12 years ago. Their friends who were not thrown out have their salaries going up to a lakh. 

The plight of suffering families

More than themselves, they are worried about their families. While they are supportive and want them to continue to struggle, even if that means going to jail, these men find themselves plagued with guilt. “I can't buy school uniforms for my daughter and son,” Singh added morosely. “If I take a loan, all my life would be spent repaying it. What if my children find the struggle a waste? What if my children curse me for not doing enough for them?” 

They are preparing for a relay hunger strike. Coincidentally, a similar struggle is unfolding in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur, where Samsung workers—a company known for its global no-union policy—are protesting to be allowed their basic right to unionize. 

Their strike was declared illegal by Tamil Nadu’s socialist government, which makes us wonder about the state of labor laws in our country. The push for India to become a global economic power, a vishwaguru, by attracting foreign capital would lead to weaker labor protection laws and compound the suffering of workers.

Maruti workers have decided to give a nod, a Lal Salam, to them with the intention that if they join hands, they can mount more pressure on the management. “Our grammar doesn't have a question mark. Maruti owes us money as well as dignity.” Katar Singh shouted from the makeshift dais, his hands clenched in fists. 

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Edited by Parth Sharma.

Image by Janvi Bokoliya