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From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Sun Aug 28, 2005 Subject: A REPORT ON POLICE ATTACK ON HONDA WORKERS Questions From a Worker Who Reads A poem by Bertolt Brecht Who built Thebes of the seven gates? In the books you will find the names of kings. Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock? And Babylon, many times demolished Who raised it up so many times? In what houses of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live? Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished Did the masons go? Great Rome Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song Only palaces for its inhabitans? Even in fabled Atlantis The night the ocean engulfed it The drowning still bawled for their slaves. The young Alexander conquered India. Was he alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Did he not have even a cook with him? Philip of Spain wept when his armada Went down. Was he the only one to weep? Frederick the Second won the Seven Year's War. Who Else won it? Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors? Every ten years a great man? Who paid the bill? So many reports. So many questions. A REPORT ON POLICE ATTACK ON HONDA WORKERS As images of the brutal attack by the Haryana police on hundreds of protesting workers in Gurgaon on 25 July 2005 were flashed across television screens in India and many parts of the world, people across the country were left shaken and outraged, including a section of the most privileged. It is a tragic and telling comment on our times that it took such a brutal attack on Honda??s workers for this to happen. Had it been the everyday brutality and humiliation that workers face in factories, small and large, national or multinational, in towns big and small, that story would have found few sympathisers. Had an attack of this enormous magnitude happened in some place far away from the nation??s capital and removed from the gaze of television cameras, it would have evoked little reaction outside the immediate vicinity of the attack. Barely before one could come to grips with the implications of such a brutal assault by the state, there came shocking statements from the Japanese ambassador and from representatives of Indian industry. The Japanese ambassador Y. Enoki said, "This is a disadvantage for India??s image as an FDI destination." Finally, industry concluded that it was not. Hence FICCI??s stand that "The brand equity of Gurgaon has not been hit." (Times of India, 31 July). Clearly, the only issue industry and the government was concerned about was whether foreign direct investment would get affected by the beamed images of police violence and by the widespread protests against the events. So, Gurgaon is not a city any more, not a place where struggling people and workers live. Gurgaon is a brand, symbolized by the flashy malls that workers build even as their own jhuggis are destroyed. Malls with goods that only the privileged few can buy. Fed on sops, cheap land, and tax cuts by the state, Gurgaon has become a hub of large investment in the region. It??s led by the automobile industry, including Maruti, Hero Honda and Honda Motors. Also in the forefront are computer, information technology and IT-related services such as IBM and Microsoft, and financial enterprises such as GE Capital and American Express. The annual industrial turnover of Gurgaon is Rs 42,000 crore (Hindustan Times, 31 July 2005). This class duality is the reason for which capital investment in Gurgaon will not be affected: the workers on the one hand and the class that rushes to Gurgaon??s malls on the other. The Honda factory is a typical instance of large capital shifting production to a place where labour is cheap, where the laws are hollow and where a corrupt administration and ministers stand firmly with corporations in any labour conflict. On the other hand, the Japanese automotive industry is set on cornering the huge market that the Indian middle class and elite represent. Both these sections are epitomised in the political economy of Gurgaon and its vicinity. The image of an urban paradise of large industry, flashy malls and high rise housing was jolted by the events of 25 July. To understand why workers became a threat to the management and the police and to contextualize the brutal lathicharge on Honda??s workers, we need to look at the events that preceded and followed it. The Honda Factory Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) is located at Manesar, beyond Gurgaon, on the road between Delhi and Jaipur. This area is a huge industrial belt with numerous large automobile and other factories, such as Honda, Maruti Udyog, including several ancillary units that supply spare parts to these large assembling plants. HMSI itself is a complete subsidiary of Honda Motors, the Japanese automotive company, which happens to be the world??s largest manufacturer of two-wheelers. HMSI has been in production for about five years. The company??s revenues totalled Rs 1,000 crore in 2003-04, and were expected to rise to Rs 1,600 crore in 2004-05. Its two main products are Honda scooters - of which it used to produce 2,000 a day at peak production - and motorbikes. The bike production has declined from about 600 a day at its peak to about a hundred daily at present. One of its three scooter brands is largely exported to Europe, South and Central America and to other Asian countries. The Honda factory at Manesar has a total of three thousand workers, of whom about 1,700 are permanent, 800 are trainees, about 400 workers are on contract and there are a hundred apprentices. This last category is workers doing ITI courses and this is part of their practical training. Most of these, barring some contract workers, are ITI graduates. There is little difference in the work these categories of workers do. The factory has few female workers; no woman works in the assembly line; the 30-35 women work as office staff. Workers, Wages and Working Conditions Despite doing exactly the same work, it is striking how a large section of the workforce - almost half - is kept non-permanent and made to work at lower wages. This is an extremely common practice among most manufacturing companies. These are ways to get workers to work cheap. In Honda, apprentices are paid Rs 1,100 a month; contract workers get about Rs 2,200 a month, way below Haryana's stipulated minimum wage of Rs 2,900 a month for skilled workers. They are made to sign vouchers that claim that they are paid Rs 2,900 a month though. The trainees get about Rs 5,000 a month and the permanent workers anywhere between Rs 8,000-12,000 a month depending on experience. These workers work in three shifts, two of eight-and-a-half hours each and one during the night of seven hours. The assembly line itself operates only for the first two shifts; other related work carries on through the night. There??s some amount of overtime, for which they are paid double the basic pay. They get a few provisions such as PF and ESI; these seem to apply to most workers. Japanese companies such as Honda tend to follow the Toyota model of what is called "post-Fordist" assembly line work, characterized in two ways: one, "just-in-time" production, in which spare parts and components are delivered when they are needed and no stock piling is allowed. Second, and more importantly, the implementation of intense production techniques solely directed towards speeding up the work process. By making the process faster, the aim is also to trim the workforce. The relentless pressure that speeding up places on each worker can only be imagined. The average age of the worker in the Honda factory is 20-25 years. The oldest worker, we were told, is about 30-32 years. Anyone in their mid-thirties and older is considered past their prime for the relentless "post-Fordist" assembly line work. The Background to the Attack The events of 25th July revealed a number of incidents that had been adding to the workers?? anger and resentment against the management. Incidents of abuse and harassment, including of women staff, seem to be a regular phenomenon. We were told by numerous workers we met in the hospital the day after they were attacked that matters came to a head on 17 December 2004, when a machine operator was kicked by a Japanese official. A Sikh worker had his pagdi knocked off his head by a superior. Workers had to sign movement slips just to go to the toilet! A year ago, a permanent worker who left his post to go to the toilet was dismissed. This disciplining and controlling of workers was beginning to assume crude and violent forms in an atmosphere that had become most threatening to the management. This threat and insecurity stemmed from the efforts of the workforce to organise for better working conditions and increase in wages. Undermining the Union While all roads are being paved for corporations to invest in different regions, the state also assiduously protects management from labour conflicts or losses incurred from workers organising for their rights. The fact of workers of a "prestigious" automobile company coming together to further their interests unnerved the management and the government. The AITUC-affiliated union faced unimaginable hurdles simply trying to get the union registered. The resistance by the management, the local administration and the highest government functionaries is another instance of the increasing challenges workers face across the country. The initial response of the Honda management in Gurgaon was: why don??t you form an internal committee instead? Which is obviously something constituted with the management??s assent, and without any recognition in law or registration, a body essentially to control workers rather than one that represents workers?? interests against capital. When the workers refused to form an internal committee, the management began its dirty tricks. Workers were individually pressurized not to form the union. A number of workers were made to sign blank sheets of paper. This happened on 7 February 2005. The very next day, the workers applied to the Labour Dept in Chandigarh for registration. The management started talking to workers, this time not to join the union. Letters were sent to workers?? homes, saying that they were indulging in mischievous activities. Then, workers claim that a number of goons were hired to target the most active workers. These goons would roam the company premises with guns. The Honda Motorcycles and Scooter Workers' Union was finally registered only on 30 May. By then, management??s targeting of the most active workers had begun. Through late May and early June, about fifty workers were suspended. This included five of the seven most active members of the incipient union. And on 24th May, four workers, including union president Suresh Gaur and organizer Kundan Singh Mehta, were suspended. A false case of beating up a worker was filed against these four. They were dismissed on 28 May, again without even a fig-leaf of an enquiry. There is a law, and there is a reality, and never the twain shall meet. The management??s attacks became more direct in late June. During the night of 26 June, the union president Suresh Gaur and secretary Shafi Abdul were surrounded by a couple of policemen, three goons and a senior management person while the former were asleep. Suresh Gaur and Shafi Abdul were thrown from the building. Shafi suffered injuries in his spine, Suresh Gaur has injuries in his leg. When we met him over a month later, he was still hobbling about slowly. The ???Good Conduct?? Undertaking and the Illegal Lock-out When workers reached the factory gates on 27 June, they found it closed. They were asked to sign an undertaking before entering. The major conditions of the undertaking included : they would not go on strike; would not carry out a ???go-slow?? agitation; would maintain discipline; would meet production targets; and would not indulge in union activities during working hours. This amounted to an illegal lockout imposed by the management. Forcing workers to sign this undertaking violates all Indian labour law and the Constitution, but no authority has pulled up Honda for this serious violation. Exactly this tactic has been tried before in Gurgaon on 12 October 2000, by the management of Maruti Udyog Limited. (See box on Maruti: History Repeats Itself). Aware that this undertaking imposed by the Honda management was nothing but an attempt to break the union and even more acutely aware of the grim events that had unfolded at Maruti Udyog Ltd four years ago, the leadership asked workers to sign the undertaking. As we were told by two of their union office-bearers, "We realized that refusing to sign meant staying out of the factory. To really fight, we have to be inside. Otherwise they would keep us out, break the union and hire a fresh workforce." Despite agreeing to sign, the management refused to allow the workers to enter. The lockout was in place. Hundreds of workers were now at the factory gates, and would remain there for over four weeks. They were also now being denied wages, and have not got wages for the last two months. In the meantime, production was going on at a much lower level, with the help of some apprentices and workers from Honda??s ancillary units. Production had fallen to 200-250 scooters a day from a peak of 2,000 a day. The management later claimed that this lower production figure was because of the workers??agitation. However, it is the pressure tactics of the management against workers organising themselves that led to the lockout. It is common practice that by keeping a large chunk of workers as apprentices, contract, or in other cases casual, managements ensure that some production happens even when a majority of workers have been locked out. The union sent notices regarding the illegal lockout to the Labour Dept in Chandigarh. After negotiations, the Honda management agreed to take back 400 workers at a time. A list of these workers was issued. Yet again they were denied entry and the management then said that they would take back only a hundred workers at a time. "Jallianwallah Bagh" : The Attack of 25 July Negotiations continued for long. When the Honda management refused to budge, the union, along with a number of other unions in Haryana supporting the Honda workers decided to have a joint agitation on 25 July in different districts of Haryana. It is significant to mention here that the level of hostility, the use of threats to break the union and other hard pressure tactics of the management were being systematically reported to the Labour department and the highest government functionaries by the union leadership. Far from listening to workers?? demands, violence was let loose with all major players being in the full and complete knowledge of what was happening. A large number of Honda??s workers marched in the morning to the Kamala Nehru Park in Gurgaon. They were halted by the police some time later, saying that they had no permission to agitate. At which point, a scuffle between the police and some people present on the spot broke out, in which both sides suffered injuries. A Deputy Commissioner of Police sustained minor injuries. Some police vehicles were burnt, but there??s ambiguity about how that happened. Shockingly, workers were asked to assemble at Gurgaon??s mini-Secretariat and wait. Workers were sitting in anticipation of some move for negotiations. In the meantime, unknown to these workers, police reinforcements were being called in. They had been sitting there peacefully for over an hour, when the brutal attack by the police took place. The workers were cornered in a space in the mini-Secretariat, which has high walls on all sides. The plan was deliberate. There was no escape. The assault carried on for at least 30 minutes. Lathis were directed single-mindedly at the heads of workers. At least 750 workers were injured in this dastardly attack, many of them badly. Most of the injured workers we met the next morning had injuries on their head. Many have their limbs and arms fractured. Clearly, the attempt was to seriously injure and humiliate the workers for daring to hit a police official. Three weeks after the attack, around ten workers are still missing. In the chaos that still prevails, there is no way to confirm this. Also, at least 500 workers were detained. The detained workers were taken away from Gurgaon to police stations far away. The desperation the next day, of relatives and friends looking for their missing comrades, had to be seen. There was not a single official ready to respond to queries about missing workers. On the contrary, another lathicharge was carried out within the premises of Gurgaon??s Civil Hospital on 26 July. A number of workers were let off that morning, but nearly two weeks after the attack, 63 people were still in custody. This includes office-bearers of the Honda union. Cases under sections 307 IPC (attempt to murder), S. 148 and 149 (rioting) have been filed against these 63 workers. It??s a familiar farce: those attacked have serious cases slapped on them! Not a single case has been filed against police officials who ordered the attack or those who carried it out. Events Since the Attack People's Response This attack on Honda??s workers, one of the most brutal on protesting workers in recent years, provoked outrage and street protests all over the country. In Delhi, numerous Left parties and other groups held demonstrations the next day and during the days that followed, at Jantar Mantar and in front of Haryana Bhavan. The Delhi University Teachers?? Association and the DU Karamchari Sangh called for a one-day strike. A collective of trade unions, students and other groups formed the Honda Workers Ekjutta Committee in Delhi and held a dharna outside Haryana Bhavan on 30 July. Reports of protests and solidarity actions by workers have been coming in from various states. There have been protests outside Honda showrooms at Ludhiana, Udaipur, and Kaithal. Numerous unions in factories located in Gurgaon, Manesar and adjoining areas including IMD, Speedomax, Maruti and Hero Honda had a protest programme on 28 July. And in a move that has enormous significance for working class solidarity in both the region and within this industry, a committee of these unions including those in the automotive sector has been formed for long-term collective action in the region. The Government Response The government??s response was pathetic. There were a few mild statements of rebuke from national leaders. Initially, there was no response from the Haryana government. And nothing took place on the ground: no suspensions of guilty policemen, no arrests, no cases against the police or the Honda management. The governments, both state and centre, were more agitated by the response of the Japanese envoy that FDI would be affected. All manner of ministers were bending over backwards to convince Japanese and other capital that Gurgaon remained as attractive a destination as ever and that the Honda agitation was only a blip. Pressurized by the intense people??s revulsion to the police attack, and by the fact that it was getting so much prime time television and media space, the government took some faltering steps: on 26 July, the Hooda government agreed to constitute an enquiry by a retired high court judge, G. C. Garg. It said the Commissioner of Police and the SP, Gurgaon, would be asked to go on leave while the enquiry was being conducted. The government also sought to defuse the situation by getting the Honda management to negotiate. Finally, in the early hours of 30 July, a tripartite agreement was arrived at. It said that: 1. All workers would be taken back into the factory and they would resume work; 2. Workers would get their back wages for these months; 3. The 50 suspended workers and the four dismissed in May-June would be reinstated, but they would not be allowed to work in manufacturing, pending enquiry; 4. Workers would also sign a bond which said they would abide by good conduct, meet production targets, observe standing orders of the company and refrain from sabotage. 5. No wage increases, or other demands, would be made by the workers or their union for a year after this agreement. However, the Honda management is already violating some terms of the agreement even before their signature on it has dried. At least 40 trainee apprentices have not been confirmed and have been dismissed. When about 150 contract workers went to resume work, they were simply handed their outstanding wages and summarily asked to leave, with no reason given. The government too has been lax. No action has been taken against any police person at any level despite the brutal attack being broadcast all over the country, and there being prima facie evidence. Although the 63 workers in custody were granted bail after sustained follow-up, the cases against them, including the absurd charge of attempt to murder, still exists. Some Observations A huge contribution of Honda?? s workers has been to create a dent in the dominant image of a booming industry poised to take society to the heights of advanced capitalist development. The exploitation within factories of those who make the prestigious products of Honda and the like cannot go unheard. The image of this world-renowned company will forever be stained by its bloody deeds in Haryana on 25th July 2005. The attack on Honda??s workers will forever remain a blot on the automobile industry and its gleaming products. The Honda management??s intention to thwart the process of union formation is the crux of the events that have unfolded over the last two months. The suspensions, dismissals, false cases, attacks on union leaders, and the use of police violence, all show to what depths managements, multinational or otherwise, can stoop to break unions and undermine working class solidarities. In this, managements are completely assisted by the police, by different offices of the administration, and local political leaders. This powerful nexus of state and capital has over the last decade tried its utmost to undermine workers?? interests to invite investment from companies ?? foreign and national. They have been striving to rationalise labour laws that are seen as a barrier to restructuring to facilitate a globalized economy. This directly implies sacrificing the hard-won rights of labour. And the use of state repression against those who dare to organize despite these heavy restraints unmasks the state as only the defender of capital. The Honda union leadership??s assertion that it does not help to get pushed out of the factory gates, whether by illegal undertakings or by lockouts, needs to be seen in this context of limited possibilities available today for workers to strategize effectively. The shrinking space for the struggle for workers' basic rights is a harsh reality unions are confronted with. Strike actions which were the major form of working class action through much of the 20th century seem far more formidable today. Even as all struggles are being thrown on the defensive and getting enmeshed in protracted litigation and police cases, it is a big challenge to renew strategies. It remains to be seen whether the tripartite agreement has merely been agreed upon to defuse the situation or whether the motivation of the management is otherwise. Needless to say, the Honda management in Gurgaon is likely to resume its efforts in breaking the union and the solidarity of the workers once attention on the Honda dispute subsides. This merits the utmost vigilance by the Honda union, other unions and all of us concerned with the future of working class movements. There is also the urgent need to strengthen unions and build solidarities within the automobile industry and beyond. MARUTI: History Repeats Itself Five years ago, there was a protracted struggle over the calculation of a productivity-based incentive between the workers and management of Maruti Udyog Limited. On the morning of 12 October 2000, hundreds of workers reported for duty at the MUL factory on the Gurgaon-Palam Road. They found a huge number of police and management personnel standing outside locked gates. Workers were asked to individually sign a "good conduct undertaking" to be allowed inside the factory. The undertaking stated: "I shall neither indulge in go-slow, nor result in tool-down or stay-in strike or any other activity adversely affecting production and discipline." The parallels between this illegal lock-out imposed by the Maruti management and the situation created by the Honda management on 27 June 2005, are striking. The question is, why would managements force workers to sign impossible undertakings thereby ensuring that they stayed out of the factory for a period? Would not disrupting production in this fashion run against the management??s interest? In order to undermine unions and weaken the collective bargaining power of workers, managements find it easier to attack workers, both physically by using the police, and through other pressure tactics, outside the factory rather than inside it. So, they ensure workers stay out by forcing them to sign such unacceptable undertakings. Then, they either dismiss or suspend the most active organizers. They also use casual workers, contract labour or apprentices to carry on production. When workers are finally allowed in, a number of workers including the active organizers, are kept out. Through all this, the attempt is to undermine or even completely destroy the union. As in this present Honda conflict, the Maruti management preceded its undertaking by dismissing or suspending a number of workers. When workers refused to sign the undertaking, they were all locked out. Production carried on at a lower rate with a number of contract workers and apprentices. Through November 2000, the Maruti Udyog Employees?? Union held on. The Maruti-Suzuki management refused to relent to the feeble pressure being applied to it from the government. On 13 December, hundreds of Maruti workers went on agitation outside the Ministry of Industry. For the first time in years, Delhi witnessed working class action of this magnitude. It carried on for almost four weeks of a bitter winter; four union office-bearers went on a fast-unto-death. What happened subsequently is instructive, for Honda??s workers and for us all. In the weeks that followed, Maruti engaged in a bitter attack on its workers. Thirty-six workers, including the most active office-bearers of the union, were dismissed and seventeen workers were suspended. Workers who returned to work in January 2001 were set arbitrary and higher production targets. Sixty workers, especially those active during the lockout were without notice transferred to another department. A number of workers were charge-sheeted, including the union general secretary and the vice-president of the union, and dismissals and suspensions continued. In the months that followed, the management imposed a VRS. Enormous pressure was brought to bear on individual Maruti workers to sign, and hundreds of workers were thus made to leave the factory. At least 400 workers were dismissed or suspended. On 3 August 2005, even as the Honda conflict was still unfolding, a number of Maruti workers held a dharna outside Jantar Mantar demanding that all workers be reinstated. One question becomes pressing: if it is tactically preferable for workers to get in rather than agitate outside a factory, what actions are possible for struggling workers to win their demands? This is one of the most crucial implications of the bitter conflict between workers and the management of Honda at Gurgaon. (See Lockout at Maruti, Workers Solidarity, Delhi, November 2000) THIS REPORT HAS BEEN PUBLISHED BY WORKERS?? SOLIDARITY, NEW DELHI PRINTED COPIES OF THE REPORT ARE AVAILABLE IN BOTH HNDI AND ENGLISH Contact email id: workers.solidarity@... Courtesy : Vijayan M. J. |
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August29, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net]Dalit news,Mecca,globalization,UK report etc >> |
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