Thursday, June 16, 2011

An appeal for solidarity to all workers of Suzuki Motor Corporation

More than 2000 of your co-workers are on strike for their right to organise and form a union in the Maruti Suzuki plant at Manesar in India

Workers have to fight unitedly against heightened attacks on labour rights all over the world in the name of recession and austerity measures

Dear friends,

More than 2000 workers of the Maruti Suzuki factory at Manesar, Gurgaon are on strike since last June 4 and have occupied the factory. Their demands are totally lawful. For now they are just demanding that their legal right to form their own union be recognised. As per the labour law, they have all the rights to form their own union and all the workers support this demand. These include a large number of contract workers and apprentice workers who have been working in the factory for years. Maruti Suzuki India, the biggest car maker in India is a partial subsidiary of the Suzuki Motor Corporation who owns 54 percent of its equity.

But the management of Maruti Suzuki, in a totally illegal manner, has refused to give recognition to the union and is adopting fascist tactics to break the agitation. It is getting open support from the Congress government of the state of Haryana. The management has declared the strike as illegal and the 11 leading workers have been dismissed. Even the state  government has declared the agitation as illegal. It has given a free hand to the Maruti Suzuki management to deal with the workers.

The workers are sitting inside the factory gates for past 12 days. The management has disconnected the electricity and water supply in the factory premises and even the canteen has been shut down. The workers are sitting in the same clothes in excruciating summer heat but they are not ready to buckle down in the face of the strongarm tactics of management. Large number of police personnel and armed security guards of Maruti Suzuki are deployed at the factory gate who stop everyone at a distance of 100 meter from the factory gate. Not even the media persons and the relatives of workers are being allowed to meet the workers. The relatives who take food to the workers inside are also being threatened and intimidated. Those who are trying to spread their message to fellow workers in the region are attacked by the security gurads of the company. (Please go here for more news about the strike: http://workersresist.net).

We appeal to all the workers of the Suzuki Motor Corporation to show solidarity with their co-workers who are fighting against all odds and pressurise the company to stop its repressive tactics and accept the just demands of the workers. Workers all over the world are facing heightened attacks on labour rights in the name of recession and austerity measures. Workers have to fight unitedly against the might of the corporates to safeguard our rights and jobs. We must find ways to organise all workers of transnational corporations like Suzuki as well as all workers of an industry like the automobile industry. The corporations are colluding to crush workers all over. It is high time that the workers across countries start joining hands to resist.

Citizens Front in Support of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Movement
Sandeep (8447011935) , sandeep.samwad@gmail.com
Sourav (9811841341) souravbanerjee25@yahoo.com

-           Ajay Swami (9540436262), Delhi Metro Kamgar (Workers) Union
 

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