Maruti softens stand, workers say reinstate sacked colleagues

New Delhi (PTI) - In the first signs of a
resolution to the over week-long strike at its Manesar plant,
Maruti Suzuki India Sunday said it is willing to recognise the
new union -- the main demand of the workers.
The workers also said they are willing to end the stir
provided 11 of their sacked colleagues are reinstated.
"One of the possibilities is to have individual local
plant unions with an umbrella governing council that has
members taken from the local plant's union," MSI Managing
Executive Officer (Administration) S Y Siddiqui said.
It is understood that the governing council will take
part in charting out future company policies in order to avoid
worker unrest.
The company, however, was silent on the demand for
reinstating the sacked workers, although sources said it was
unlikely that they would be taken back.
Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) General Secretary
Shiv Kumar claimed that the company management has agreed to
reinstate five out of the 11 sacked workers, but the union is
demanding that all of them be taken back.
"If they (management) can take back five, why not all the
11? We are willing to end the strike if all of them are taken
back," he said.
Meanwhile, the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)
said workers in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt will hold
a two-hour tool-down strike on Tuesday in support of their
striking colleagues at the MSI Manesar plant.
"Public meetings will be held tomorrow at different
factories in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt. On Tuesday, there will
be a two-hour tool-down strike in about 60-65 factories in the
region," AITUC Secretary D L Sachdev told PTI.
Sachdev, along with AITUC General Secretary Gurudas
Dasgupta, had met Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda
twice last week over the strike at MSI's plant.
Different workers' unions, including those from Hero
Honda, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India and Rico Auto, have
been supporting the strike at MSI's plant.
Around 2,000 workers at MSI's Manesar plant have been on
strike since June 4, demanding the recognition of a new union
-- Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) -- formed by those
working at the Manesar plant, among other things.
Cracking the whip, the company fired 11 workers for
allegedly inciting others to go on strike.
The company is set to enforce the no work-no pay policy,
although it would not necessarily strictly apply the eight
days salary deduction for every day of strike, a source said.
On the eighth day of the strike yesterday, the loss to
the company mounted to about Rs 390 crore for 7,800 units. The
factory is closed on Sunday.