Maruti resumes production partially, strike continues

The workers’ strike at the Maruti India’s Manesar plant has entered the 11th day, which had begun on October 7th. Apparently, the workers are carrying the agitation outside the company’s premises complying with the court orders. After a two-day production stand-stillthe operations at the plant are reported to have commenced. The production of the Maruti’s best-selling models had been brought to halt due to the supply constraints of the components from Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd.

A company spokesperson has reported that the production at the Manesar plant has been partly resumed by those trained workers who did not take part in the strike. However, the operations at the Gurgaon plant are reported to reach the normalcy, though the production output depends on the SPIL’s component supply. Nevertheless, the Maruti models including Maruti Eeco, Maruti Gypsy, Maruti 800 and Maruti Omni production are not affected by the component supply from SPIL. Haryana Government is also said to call the meeting between the SPIL, Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL), MSI workers and management to bring about an amicable solution.

The Maruti strike at the plants has re-commenced on October 7th after the workers demanded to reinstate 1200 of the contract workers apart from their long-standing demand to take back 44 of the suspended workers. The MSI workers have agreed to it earlier when they signed the good conduct bond on October 1st to end the 1 month long impasse at the plant. The intensity of the agitation has spread to Maruti Suzuki India’s sister concerns including the SPIL and SMIPL, due to which, the production at the Manesar plants had been paused on October 14th and 15th. While the MSI workers have decided to take the matter to the Supreme Court to challenge the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order, the High Court on the other hand has referred the case to the Haryana Labour Court to take upon the matter. This is in reaction to the Maruti Suzuki India management’s plea to their woes on production and monetary losses incurred by the company.