In the first signs of a resolution to the over week-long strike at its Manesar plant, Maruti Suzuki India on 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 on Saturday, the loss to the company mounted to about Rs 390 crore for 7,800 units. The factory is closed on Sunday.
