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Seven months after thousands of workers were terminated following unrest in Honda Motorcycle Scooter India’s two-wheeler manufacturing unit in Tapukara, Rajasthan, the workers’ agitation has reached Delhi, seeking the Union Labour Ministry’s intervention. Five workers also began an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday.
“We have sought an appointment with the Labour Minister (Bandaru Dattatreya), but he is out of station. We will take a decision only after we get an assurance from the Minister,” said Amarjeet Kaur, Secretary, AITUC, with which the Honda 2F Kamgar Union, is affiliated. On Tuesday, various central trade union leaders from CITU, HMS and INTUC and unions from other auto units, such as Maruti Suzuki, Bellsonica, Sunbeam Auto, HMSI-Manesar and Rico Auto held a rally in support.
The sacked Honda workers, who are slated to meet State Labour Department representatives in Jaipur on Wednesday, are demanding that all terminated workers be reinstated and criminal cases be withdrawn, said Surinder Kumar, Secretary of the union, which was registered five months after the February unrest. He said they were in Delhi because of being denied permission by the Rajasthan government to “even sit on a dharna.”
Some workers told BusinessLine that failing a positive response, “we will call for product boycott during Diwali (when sales pick up), and will also bring out posters exposing product deficiencies”. The Tapukara plant manufactures Honda Activa and Shine, Deo and Navi.
Repeated attempts to reach company officials for their response were unfruitful. However, company sources said the Rajasthan facility was “running normally and there was no cut in production.”
The workers, most in their mid-20s, said they had no option but to fight for their rights. “We are under pressure from our families, but are not getting jobs anywhere because of “false” cases. Also, most contractors for auto units prefer to employ those below 23 year-olds, said Alok Kumar, 25, who completed his skills training in an ITI and got placement in Honda’s Rajasthan plant when he was 19 years old.
Kumar said he was among the 3,000 workers, including 469 permanent workers, “thrown out” from the plant after the February unrest. “After our agitation, about 280 workers have been reinstated, but the rest have been slapped with false criminal charges, such as murder and dacoity” said Kumar.
The workers claimed that the unrest in the Tapukara plant was triggered by their wanting to register a union, which led to a conflict with the management, followed by a police lathi-charge.
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