My comments posted on "
The root causes underlying Manesar plant riot and a lesson to learn"
Amaresh Misra, a historian and social scientist observes parallels
of the incidents at Manesar and the 1857 uprising against British colonials.
The management/labor relations at Maruti /Suzuki, do not necessarily abide by
the dialectics of modern labor management in India unless the power of
religious symbolism is given equal or even more weightage in any analysis. The
benign neglect or even proactive degradation of religious and cultural sentiments
by management may first appear to be merely triggers, but in fact that is the
very background against which any foreign intrusion, benevolent or malevolent
is judged from the very outset by the Indian society. Be that Japanese
management or foreign trained Indian management, the reaction to the tradition-bound
ethos, is continuously evaluated and judged by the community as well as the wider
society. It is therefore incumbent on the Maruti-Suzuki management, not to
interpret the outburst in purely modern capitalist/labor inter-relationship,
but accommodate willingly and proactively the deeply entrenched religious,
social and cultural ethos of the locals. That is not an impossible task.
Mughals ruled for 300 years with those strategies.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
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The root causes underlying Manesar plant riot and a lesson to learn
July 24, 2012, 10:17 IST by CarTrade Editorial Team
Recently, the country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Limited
(MSIL) received a jolt when the infuriated mob of workers at its Manesar
plant attacked the officials and set the production line on fire. The
incident claimed life of one of the Senior Managers, injured nine
policemen and left 100 officials being hospitalised. The incident was a
blot on the entire history of the car industry being one of the most
violent, even though India is not new to such incidents and
demonstrations. The mishap has left the plant at Manesar gasping with
parts of the assembly line being burnt down and around 1,200 policemen
have been called-in to avoid any kind of repercussion.
According to Maruti spokesperson, the conflict began after the Maruti
Suzuki Worker's Union stood up for a worker who has been suspended for
roughing up a company executive. The official who is being currently
treated in a hospital stated that the attack from the worker was
unprovoked. According to the executive, who suffered a broken elbow and
received injuries in head, ribs and legs, “The workers grabbed whatever
they could, split up in small groups and attacked us.” Police has
arrested a number of workers of the Manesar plant under the charges of
murder and attempted murder.
MSIL commented that the riots were not due to the friction between the
white collared and blue collared workers over working conditions and
wages. But than the question arrives, what actually triggered the whole
conflict. True that there were low cohesion between the workers and
management on the issue of the suspended employee; however, that is not
enough to drive the incident to this level wherein a manager lost his
life.
Then what drove the worker's mob to shun against the law and claim a
life. The root cause of the whole incident is the underlying aggression
and the anger of the workers. After the strikes in 2011, the then
worker's union ceased to exist after its official submitted their papers
being faced with severe penalties. Ever since then, there has been
unrest among the workers regarding the working conditions and the wages.
Besides these, there has also been a lack of control and discipline at
the Manesar plant. One could easily mistake the plant for a railway
station with undisciplined workers voicing their grudges loudly and no
senior official in sight. A Japanese manufacturing plant, even if it is
located on the outskirts of Delhi, is expected to follow an unannounced
code of discipline, which was not so in the case of Manesar plant. The
incident at the MSIL plant is a perfect example for the others auto
makers in the industry as to what can happen in the absence of a proper
protocol and employee satisfaction.
