As the chief patron, Mr. Dhillon was a key member of the band of workers mobilising to form a union. Unlike what one might expect, it was not on July 18, 2012, but June 4, 2011, when everything changed for him.
“That was the day of our first strike in our struggle to form an independent union,” he recalled.
Mr. Dhillon belongs to Dahola village in Jind district of Haryana. After graduating from ITI Kaithal in 2004, he joined the Gurgaon plant as apprentice for a year. He then worked as contract worker at the then Honda Siel Cars India Ltd for six months, before joining Maruti’s Manesar plant as a trainee on July 7, 2006.
Mr. Dhillon became a permanent worker on July 7, 2009. Having worked at Maruti’s Gurgaon plant, he could not reconcile to the working conditions in Manesar.
“The workers were treated very badly at the Manesar plant. Verbal abuse was common and there was no respect for human rights or dignity. They were not even given enough time to drink water.”
He helped organise meetings with workers outside working hours and explained to them the need to have their own union.
“There was a lot of pressure on us not to press for an independent union. But despite many setbacks – once the management bought off our union leadership – the unity between permanent and contract workers ensured that we could form our union,” he recalled.
On his time in jail, he recalls reading works on Bhagat Singh and Nelson Mandela.
“Also newspapers, mostly Punjab Kesari , Amar Ujala , The Tribune and Dainik Jagran . I liked to spend time in the library.”
Mr. Dhillon comes across as the most moody of the four — militant one moment and despondent the next.
“I have no interest in giving speeches, in all this activism stuff,” he says.
Ten minutes later, “my worker friends stood by me right through my four years in jail. I will always be a part of this fight for justice and workers’ dignity.”
‘The unity between permanent and contract workers ensured that we could form our union’
