[Reader-list] Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 14 (November 2008)

[Jeebesh]

From: <gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk>

Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 14 (November 2008)
(full version at: www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com)

Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of  
capitalist success promising a better life for everyone behind the  
gateway of development. At a first glance the office towers and  
shopping malls reflect this chimera and even the facades of the  
garment factories look like three star hotels. Behind the facade,  
behind the factory walls and in the side streets of the industrial  
areas thousands of workers keep the rat-race going, producing cars and  
scooters for the middle-classes which end up in the traffic jam on the  
new highway between Delhi and Gurgaon. Thousands of young middle class  
people lose time, energy and academic aspirations on night-shifts in  
call centres, selling loan schemes to working-class people in the US  
or pre-paid electricity schemes to the poor in the UK. Next door,  
thousands of rural-migrant workers uprooted by the agrarian crisis  
stitch and sew for export, competing with their angry brothers and  
sisters in Bangladesh or Vietnam. And the rat-race will not stop; on  
the outskirts of Gurgaon, Asia's biggest Special Economic Zone is in  
the making. The following newsletter documents some of the  
developments in and around this miserable boom region. If you want to  
know more about working and struggling in Gurgaon, if you want more  
info about or even contribute to this project, please do so via:

www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com
gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk

In the November issue you can find:

1) Proletarian Experiences -
Daily life stories and reports from a workers' perspective

*** Short Reports from Workers employed in factories in Gurgaon and  
Faridabad
The workers told their stories to Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar  
(Faridabad Workers' News), they were published and re-distributed in  
the industrial areas in August 2008. At least three of the workers  
employed in the textile export industry report that numbers of workers  
have dropped to a third of the previous level and that wages are  
heavily delayed. Particularly the story of the workers employed by the  
multinational shoe-manufacturer Bata is revealing. The workers are  
employed by:

Bata (shoes)
DS Buhin (automobile)
Eastern Medikit (medical equipment)
Gaurav International (textile)
Grafty Export (textile)
Hari Om Precision Tools (machine manufacturing)
Kanchan International (textile)
KRF
Lara Export (textile)
Neolight
Premium Security
Sanden Vikas (automobile)
Spark (textile)
SPL Industries (textile)
Sundari Export (textile)

2) Collective Action -
Reports on proletarian struggles in the area

*** Yet another short wildcat strike at Hero Honda plant
After a short strike at Hero Honda plant in Dharuhera plant in May  
2008 and a wildcat sit-down by casual workers at Honda (HMSI) plant in  
Gurgaon/Manesar in September 2008, the news reported about another  
action early October 2008. It would be important to know more about  
the impact of the current slump in automobile production in India on  
these casual workers and their permanent struggles, given that e.g.  
Tata announced lay-offs of 700 workers hired through contractors at  
its truck plant and nearly all two-wheeler manufacturers complain  
about a decrease in sales this autumn.

*** Different view on the strike and killing of the factory manager at  
Italian automobile supplier in NOIDA
In GurgaonWorkersNews no.13 we summarised some first news items on the  
workers' struggle related death of the factory manager at Graziano  
Transmissioni (auto parts supplier) in NOIDA, Delhi. Since then more  
thorough stuff has been written on the matter. First some notes about  
the similarity between the incident at Graziano and the police attack  
on Honda HMSI workers in Gurgaon in 2005 showing that workers will  
have to find new ways of struggle which do not focus on 'leaders' and  
which won't result in them being expelled, replaced and finally  
victimised. Secondly a chronological summary based on two main-stream  
media articles.

*** BPO union or another form of individualisation of call center  
workers
Call Centres workers are under increasing attack due to the US  
recession, e.g. early November 2008 American Express announced to lay- 
off 150 workers employed in the Gurgaon call center. Apart from actual  
lay offs like there are other crisis related cuts going on, such as  
cancelled taxi service, cuts in wages or abolishment of free food  
offers. There haven't been many collective actions by call center  
workers during it's boom time, it will show whether they will manage  
to act up against job and wage cuts collectively. We document a non- 
collective form of conflict management in the form of the 'BPO Union'  
- a kind of online-initiative which acts on behalf of call center  
workers also in Gurgaon area, e.g. at IBM Daksh or Evalueserve.

3) According to Plan -
General information on the development of the region or on certain  
company policies

*** Global crisis hits Gurgaon
Gurgaon, the global crisis hits on all fronts: in call centers and IT  
offices the jobs of 'Shining India' are cut and pillars of the major  
real estate and development projects shake, e.g. of India's biggest  
shopping mall and biggest Special Export Zone; only few months after  
several peasants were shot dead in NOIDA as a result of the struggle  
over SEZ land compensation, now these SEZ's in NOIDA and Gurgaon are  
for sale! The textile export industry face major mass lay-offs and the  
gears of the local automobile industry crunch. We summarised some  
newspaper articles from mid-November 2008. The question will be  
whether state and employers will manage to push the laid off workers  
back to where they came from - the impoverished parts of Bihar, West  
Bengal and UP - or whether workers will build strong enough ties  
amongst themselves in order to stay and reclaim the immense wealth and  
productive forces which became reason for their mass misery.

*** Never use a needle, summary of study on local textile export  
industries
In the last issues of GurgaonWorkersNews we published various short  
reports of workers employed in the local textile export industry.  
Currently the textile workers in India are threatened with mass lay  
offs due to the world recession. In the following we summarise a long  
study on the very same industry, first published in March 2007, in  
collaboration between 'United Students against Sweatshops', 'Jobs with  
Justice' and 'Society for Labour and Development'.

The study focus on six major export manufacturers:
-Modelama Exports Ltd.,
-Shahi Exports Pvt. Ltd.,
-Pearl Global Ltd., -Company G of Group R,
-Orient Crafts Ltd.,
-M/S Jyoti Apparels -

The researchers interviewed company representatives of the upper  
management and in result got some valuable insight about:
-The view of the management on the global and Indian textile market  
after the end of the trade quota in 2005
-The relation-ship between textile manufacturers and the US and  
European clients, e.g. Wal Mart
-The break down of production costs and profits
-The increased use of machinery within the apparel sector
-The work-force distribution amongst the different production  
departments and the wage and gender hierarchy

4) About the Project -
Updates on Gurgaon Workers News

*** Glossary -
Updated version of the Glossary: things that you always wanted to  
know, but could never be bothered to google. Now even in alphabetical  
order.


News from the Special Exploitation Zone -
www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com