Striking workers at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant denied on Tuesday reports of an outside support of a political party or a trade union to their cause.
The strike, largely on demands of a separate union for the Manesar plant, entered its fourth day today. By evening, the carmaker is estimated to lose total production of about 3,000 units.
“We have an independent struggle and our demands are very simple. We haven’t spoken to any trade union. It is an incorrect rumour being spread to take the attention away from the main cause of our struggle,” a striking worker told Business Line.
Another Maruti employee on strike added that the workers who have stopped worked - estimated at 2,500, will give a guarantee to make up the production losses suffered by the company, if their basic demand is met. On Monday, the company had sacked 11 employees for being the “ring leaders” of the strike.
“All we are asking for is that there should not be any legal proceedings against the workers who have refused to join the Gurgaon plant union, or those who were involved in filing the application for our own union. We need that in writing and we will make sure that the company’s losses are made up,” he said.
Mr R.C.Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, who met a few media persons on Tuesday, pegged the daily revenue loss at Rs 40 crore, but said it will not have a dent on the company’s annual turnover of close to Rs 40,000 crore.
Another Maruti official said that the company is not very worried about daily production losses. At the dealer end it has an inventory of 28 days, while the factory itself has stock for five days.