Strike at Maruti enters 10th day

The strike called by workers at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant has entered the 10th day today. Production at the plant has been hit by the strike since June 4th. Around 2,000 workers have struck work till their demand of forming a new union is met by the management. The management says that the strike is illegal as it has been called without any prior notice. The Haryana government has alsp banned the strike.

1,200 cars are produced daily at the plant, a good number of them diesel variants, which are seeing a growth in demand. According to R C Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki, the company is losing Rs. 40 crore daily due to the production loss.

According to a senior company official, the company has received unverified information that the application for the new union allows it to have an association with any political party. That is something the company is not comfortable with. Speaking to Autocar India’s sister magazine, Autocar Professional, Bhargava said “Maruti’s philosophy asks the management and workers to be on the same side for the benefit of both sides”. “Affiliation to any political party may encourage the entry of politics into the company, which may not be to the benefit of its competitiveness”, adds a source.

However, the strike may not affect Maruti much now. That’s because there’s a slowdown in the market. Car industry sales in May grew 7 percent, the slowest in two years. The company has an inventory of around a month’s sales. Though, customers of the Swift Dzire diesel may suffer as it already has a waiting period of a few months.

Models coming out of Maruti’s Gurgaon plant are not facing any problems as operations there are not impacted by the strike.

Maruti Suzuki is in the process of setting up two new plants in Manesar with a cumulative annual production capacity of 5 lakh units.