Musclemen and Group Four security guards beat activists, snatch pamphlets, try to kidnap activists
New Delhi, 15 June. Activists of Bigul Mazdoor Dasta who were addressing public meetings in support of the workers agitation in Maruti Suzuki were attacked in Gurgaon and Manesar last evening and this morning by private security guards of Maruti Suzuki and musclemen allegedly hired by the company.
Roopesh Kumar of the Bigul Mazdoor Dasta said that they are holding street corner meetings in Manesar and Gurgaon and distributing pamphlets tomobilise support in favour of the workers’ demands. They were addressing a meeting in Aliyar village near the Maruti factory in Manesar when more than a dozen armed men reached there on bikes and a jeep and attacked them. They included uniformed guards of the Group Four company hired by the Maruti Suzuki company. They abused and beat them and chased away about 250 workers assembled there by threatning them with their weapons. They were shouting that this is "Maruti'sarea and no one will be allowed to speak against the management of Maruti".
This morning, the private security guards of Maruti Suzuki again attacked the activists in Maulahera village and sector 22 near the Gurgaon based plant ofMaruti Suzuki. A large number of Maruti workers live in this area. Armed guards in two vehicles beat up 8-9 activits and snatched about 2000 workers from them. They were trying to forcibly take two activists with them in the jeep but had to back off due to resistance of the workers and other activists. They went away brandishing their arms and shouting threats. The name of one of the guards was Rajkumar and his mobile number is 9891982269.
Bigul Mazdoor Dasta, Delhi Metro Kamgar Union and Citizens Front in Support of Workers Movement of Maruti Suzuki have severely condemned this incident. They have said that hired goons of Maruti in the garb of security guards are now attacking even those who are supporting the workers in a democratic manner. It seems like Gurgaon is now ruled by the Maruti Suzuki company instead of the Haryana administration and Maruti's security guards have usurped the role of police in the reagion.
They said the company is only hurting itself by indulging in such cheap tactics. This goondagardi and cheap tactics to break the workers strike by the company will be exposed throughout the country and even on international level. The recently formed Citizens Front in Support of Workers Movement of MarutiSuzuki has appealed to civil rights activists, intellectuals, jurists, media persons and social activists to support the Maruti workers agitating peacefully for their lawful rights. It has also called upon the people to send their protets to the Haryana Chief Minister and the top management of Maruti Suzuki India and Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan.
The front has said that the management is trying to end the strike by tiring out and threatening the workers and is using all sorts of lowly tactics. They are forcing the contract workers to take their wages and go away. Even the family members of workers are being pressurised to ask them to end the strike. For this reason the negotiations are dragging on despite the Maruti management adament
The front has criticised the role of the central unions saying that some unions have been trying to "own" the agitation and claiming that the newly formed union is affiliated to them but the reality is that they have done nothing to support the workers except issuing statements in the media.
At least 2 million workers work in hundreds of units situated in the vast industrial belt in and around Gurgaon. There are around 1 million workers work in the units of automobile industry alone. These workers who produce auto parts for companies from all over the world in modern factories have to work in very bad conditions. More than 90 percent of these are contract workers who work for 10-12 hours for 4000-5000 per month. The workload and speed is extremely high and they have to face verbal abuse and even beatings by the supervisors and security guards. Most of the factories do not have unions and where the workers have managed to form a union, they have to face constant harrassment. The established big unions do nothing except paying lip service to the issues and in many cases have ditched the workers in favour of the management. In this scenario, the issue of the right to form a union is a common and universal issue in the Gurgaon industrial belt.
The pamphlet distributed by the Bigul Mazdoor Dasta says that not only the workers of Maruti Suzuki but workers all over the country are being denied the right to form their unions so that they can raise their voice unitedly against their exploitation. That's why the demands of Maruti workers find resonance accross the region. If the Maruti strike is crushed the owners will become even more aggressive in the factories of Gurgaon and the workers' voice will be even more stifled.
– Citizens Front in Support of Workers Movement of Maruti Suzuki, New Delhi
Sandeep, Phone: 8447011935, mail: sandeep.samwad@gmail.– Roopesh Kumar, Bigul Mazdoor
Phone: 9213639072, Email: bigul@rediffmail.com
– Ajay Swami, Delhi Metro Kamgar Union
Phone: 9540436262, Email: ajaynbs@gmail.com
