[Reader-list] Developing Unrest: New Struggles in Miserable Boom-Town Gurgaon

[gurgaon workers news]

Developing Unrest: New Struggles in Miserable Boom-Town Gurgaon

(Following article tries to summarise the main tendencies of class  
relations in Gurgaon and based on that to come to practical  
suggestions for local 'communist activities'.)

Gurgaon, a satellite town in the south of Delhi became the symbol of  
'Shining India'. Many people are dazzled by the glass-fronts of  
shopping-malls and corporate towers and fail to see the development of  
a massive industrial working-class behind the facade of 'post-fordist'  
display of consumerism. Together with industrial centres like the  
Pearl River Delta in China or the Maquiladoras in Northern Mexico the  
Delhi industrial belt has become a focal point of global working class  
formation.

A Global Working Class in Local Formation

In the industrial areas of Gurgaon a very particular class composition  
(1) emerged. Hundred of thousands migrant garment workers work next to  
the assembly lines of India's biggest automobile hub and next to  
hundred thousand young workers sweating under the head-sets of  
Gurgaon's call centres. We are forced to re-think our traditional  
understandings of what 'workers' are, how they struggle and how this  
struggle can become a process of self-empowerment towards self- 
emancipation.
The specific structure of industry and the composition of the work- 
force first of all pushes us beyond the regional and national frame- 
work._On the most obvious level this happens through the global  
market. In spring 2008 the Rupee reached its peak to the US-Dollar,  
causing bad export conditions. The garment industry in Gurgaon  
dismissed thousands of workers and shifted orders to 'low currency'  
countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh. In autumn 2008 the Rupee  
plummeted, but together with it the US and European market crashed and  
sent shock-waves into the industrial areas of Gurgaon: credit crunch  
for the real estate, garment orders came down, US-banking services  
slumped. At one point in time, workers in one space - who might  
otherwise have thought that they have little in common but chai stalls  
- faced a common situation: cut in bonuses or piece-rates, abolishment  
of free company meals or transport, threat of job cuts. The potential  
for a socially
explosive tea-party of english-speaking call centre night-shift youth,  
migrant garment and construction workers and young skilled workers in  
the car part plants entered the Industrial Model Towns - a mass base  
of actual 'internal threat'.(2)

There is a second level on which the 'collective work-force' has to be  
grasped beyond the boundaries of factory walls or company units. This  
level is shaped by local, regional and global division of labour.  
Maruti Suzuki connects their assembly lines and welding-robots via  
transport chains with production units of hundreds of outsourced  
suppliers, reaching into the work-shop slum-villages of Faridabad or  
the green-field industrial areas along the National Highway. Assembly  
plants around the globe depend on parts manufactured in Gurgaon by  
companies like Rico or Delphi. IT and BPO offices cooperate closely  
with branches oversea, while production in the huge garment factories  
is supplied via supervisor middlemen with piece-work from working  
(wo)men stitching 'at home'.

On a third level the character of the work-force itself can not be  
grasped on a local level: the majority of workers are migrant workers,  
going back and forth between urban industrial life and village. Wages  
are too low to reproduce a nuclear family in Gurgaon, most workers  
leave their family in the villages. Similarly it is near too  
impossible to survive a longer period of unemployment - or for that  
matter, a longer period of strike - in Gurgaon. Though disintegrating,  
the village still functions as the main unemployment insurrance. The  
changes in the villages, such as introduction of the National Rural  
Employment Guarantee Scheme or the general development of the  
agricultural market, reverberates in the working conditions in Gurgaon  
and echoes back into the rural. Workers arrive in Gurgaon with hopes,  
which are in most cases disillusioned. They survive 16-hours shifts by  
keeping both village misery and glorification in mind. Their urge 'not  
having to
be a worker anymore' expresses itself individually in plans to open a  
shop back home. Reality forces us to find a collective and social  
expression of this urge to abolish our existence 'as workers'.

Main element of this reality ' as worker' has been the casualisation  
of work-force. In winter 2000/2001 Maruti Suzuki used a labour dispute  
of minor importance to lock-out the permanent work-force and to  
replace them through compulsory 'Voluntary Retirement Schemes' with  
temporary workers. This has been repeated in other companies to a  
point where 70 to 80 per cent of the average factory work-force is  
nowadays hired through contractors - due to their mobility they have  
less interest in struggles for long running wage agreements and  
company pension schemes. They have more immediate desires and anger.  
The remaining casual and permanent workers are often young workers  
hired in various ITI-campuses all over India, employed with much less  
job security and lower wages than the old type of permanent work- 
force. In the garment factories the skilled tailors on piece-rate  
producing 'full-piece' garments are increasingly put under pressure by  
chain-systems
employing 20 less 'skilled' workers to produce the same garment in  
division of labour and by introduction of CNC-cutting and embroidery  
machines. In Kapashera - a workers' dormitory 'village' where about  
200,000 textile workers and families live close to the main industrial  
area - dozens of 'CNC-courses' and six week basic tailoring courses  
are offered by small-scale informal schools.
Given this complex picture the majority of workers do not face a  
single 'company boss' in a formal way, they face many bosses. Due to  
the real estate boom which catapulted local farmers out of their  
fields into land-lordism and business a specific coalition of local  
political class, land-lords, labour contractors, police and company- 
hired local goons became a repressive front ready to quell expressions  
of workers' unrest. This local front of ruling class is complemented  
by a faceless front of multi-national investment and central  
government policies.

Old Type of Struggles: Locked-Out in Dead-Ends

Under these general conditions struggles which remain within the  
boundaries of classical type of company or trade union struggle  
normally end in defeats and/or institutionalisation. There have been  
many 'union' struggles in Gurgaon in the last years and they seem to  
follow certain patterns (3):

There is discontent amongst both permanent workers and workers hired  
through contractors. In most cases some 'under-the-surface'-struggles  
pre-date the 'official conflict, e.g. at Honda HMSI 'spontaneous'  
canteen occupations happened before the 'official' struggle for union  
recognition. In this phase certain sections of workers get in touch  
with union officials hoping that registration of a union will  
strengthen their position. Representatives emerge, member-lists are  
required for the application. The company tries to put pressure on the  
emerging 'leadership', in many cases provokes a situation where  
suspension of 'outstanding' workers can be declared. In many cases  
companies ask the remaining work-force to sign individual letters of  
'good conduct', trying to single out supporters. Due to the unions  
self-interest they tell workers not to sign: a struggle in classical  
terms is easier to organise once workers are victimised, although  
their actual power
might be greater once back inside the factory. An unofficial lock-out  
situation emerges, often workers hired through contractors - who  
expect less gains from a company union - either enter the factory or  
additional workers are hired to keep up production. Often these new  
workers are hired from the local population of surrounding villages -  
another division between them and the mainly migrant original work- 
force. Companies are normally prepared for the lock-out and subsequent  
problems in production, either by piling-up extra-stock or by getting  
parts from other suppliers. 'Unofficial unrest' turns into classical  
forms of struggle, often managed by the main union advisors: protests  
in front of the factory gate, demonstrations, meetings with political  
leaders - the martyrdom of workers becomes a stage for leaders. In  
most cases the conflict becomes a single company issue without  
attempts to connect it to the wider discontent. State and company are  
well
capable to deal with these ritualistic forms of struggle, either  
through repression or through entangling it in a long legal dispute.  
The result of these disputes normally exclude the workers hired  
through contractors who had been part in the initial struggle and  
often the legal cases for re-instatement of victimised workers run for  
years. After recognition of a company union there tends to be silence  
afterwards (4).

Even once in the trap of a lock-out workers can do more than just wait  
for the next symbolic show of solidarity. In the case of the current  
lock-out at Maruti fuel-pump supplier Denso in Manesar 36 union  
members have been suspended on 17th of February 2010 and about 500  
workers refused to sign papers of 'good conduct'. Since mid-February  
they have been sitting outside the factory while newly hired workers  
are kept inside for 24 hours. Already before the lock-out Denso had  
ordered additional parts from its Thailand plant - an act of  
preparation. In nearby Faridabad workers of another Maruti supplier,  
AC manufacturer Sanden Vikas, were 'locked-out' at the same time. The  
union did not facilitate direct links between these two work-forces.  
The suggestion came up to write a common letter to Maruti Suzuki  
management - a rather symbolic sign of workers' coordination which  
could have had a small impact nevertheless. Another idea came up to go  
in small number of
workers to stand with placards in front of Maruti or other local  
factories. Denso runs factories around the globe, some effort to let  
workers and management in these factories know about the situation in  
Manesar could have been made (5). Small steps which could help to  
spread the word and may be create direct links between workers of the  
supply-chain. This did not happen, instead we saw one or two union  
demonstrations of the classical type and bored young workers sitting  
and playing cards. According to information of a Denso worker, on 22nd  
of March 2010 the company took back 23 out of 36 suspended union reps  
and sent all Denso workers on one week training in a local 'World  
Spiritual University' ashram, to find a 'peaceful mind'. When they  
returned to the factory most of the workers were shifted to new jobs  
in different departments, at new machines, with new neighbouring work- 
mates.

A New Generation of Workers' Struggles

We have to discuss about the short-comings of traditional forms of  
struggle together with workers - and we can discuss new forms on the  
background of actual experiences of wildcat strikes and factory  
occupations which happened in Gurgaon during the last years. These  
struggles have remained largely unknown to a 'wider public'.  
Unfortunately the left activists normally only get to know or  
interested in workers' struggles once they have reached the 'official'  
status, which generally means: when they are repressed. The lathi- 
charge at Honda in 2005 mobilised the left, so did the murder of a  
worker at Rico - the main left position concerning these incidents was  
a 'civil rights' position, not an attempt to analyse the basis for  
workers' power and self-activity. The struggles of a new generation  
already give some answers and ask many questions for the future, e.g.  
how struggles can be extended from the factory base avoiding  
'unnecessary' direct confrontation
with the state forces and pitfalls of formal representation.

In April 2006 more than 4,500 temp workers occupied the Hero Honda  
Gurgaon plant for several days demanding higher wages and better  
conditions. The company cut water and electricity, but told the police  
not to enter the factory. No support from outside the plant. The  
workers sent a small delegation for negotiations, which was bought  
off: the delegates returned promising fulfillment of all major demands  
after restart of production, they then disappeared. Only some demands  
were actually met by the management. When the factory occupation ended  
workers at Hero Honda supplier Shivam Autotech occupied their nearby  
plant raising similar demands. Workers at KDR press-shop in Faridabad,  
who supply Shivam Autotech with metal parts, worked reduced hours  
during these days._In September 2006, after temp workers at Honda HMSI  
Manesar were not included in a union deal they occupied the canteen of  
the plant supported from the outside by the next arriving shift. The
company reacted by cutting water supply. The company and union asked  
them to go back to work. In January 2007 the 2,500 temp workers at car  
parts manufacturer Delphi in Gurgaon went on wildcat strike blockading  
the main gate. The company threatened to shut-down and relocate the  
factory and asked the union of the 250 permanent workers to get the  
temps back to work - after two days the blockade was lifted. In August  
2007 the temps at Delphi struck again for few hours without prior  
notice, demanding the payment of the increased minimum wage and  
succeeded. Many of the workers lived together in back-yards of nearby  
villages, sharing food, mobile phones and information about jobs._In  
August 2007, after the Haryana government had increased the minimum  
wage, over a dozen companies in Faridabad and Gurgaon faced  
spontaneous short strikes by mainly casual workers, demanding the  
payment of the new wage. In most cases these actions were successful  
(6). In May 2008
after not having been accepted as members by the permanent workers'  
union the temp and casual workers at Hero Honda in Dharuhera went on  
wildcat strike and occupied the plant for two days. Management and  
permanent workers' union both promised betterments of the workers'  
situation. The temp and casual workers then tried to register their  
own union - a process which ended in suspension of leaders and a mass  
lock-out in October 2008 (7).

It would be schematic to label these struggles 'spontaneous'. We need  
spaces to meet in the industrial areas for analysing the social  
production process and the already existing day-to-day experiences of  
organisation and subversion within: in factories, along supply chains,  
in the back-yard living quarters, in the common remote villages (8).  
If there will be a communist party it will be the celebrations of the  
collective worker, discovering themselves by turning their social  
cooperation against its proclaimed precondition: capital. Part of this  
proletarian self-reflection must be the development of a structure of  
mutual aid, practical support and coordination. Comrades of Faridabad  
Majdoor Talmel are about to open some physical spaces for workers'  
meetings in Faridabad, Okhla, Gurgaon and Manesar. Please get in touch!

www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com
www.faridabadmajdoorsamachar.blogspot.com

(1) For debates about the concept of class composition see:_http://libcom.org/history/porto-marghera-%E2%80%93-last-firebrands
(2) We wrote an article about the wider class situation in India after  
the crisis blow of autumn 2008:_http://www.wildcat-www.de/en/wildcat/83/w83_india_en.htm
(3) The list of examples is way too long. Just to mention a few in  
Gurgaon: Maruti lock-out in 2000, Honda HMSI in 2005, Amtek in 2006,  
Automax in 2008, Mushashi and Rico in 2009, Denso and Sanden Vikas in  
2010.
(4) After recognition of the union at Honda HMSI the number of workers  
hired through contractors and general productivity even increased.
(5) It is difficult to rely on the classical union structure for these  
kind of international links. When the dispute at Rico stopped GM and  
Ford assembly lines in the US and Canada due to missing parts the  
comment of a United Automobile Workers official in Michigan was: "We  
are experiencing the effects of outsourced suppliers, and we hope they  
would be able to resume production as quickly as possible so we can in  
turn resume production" Interestingly enough this comment was made  
after the UAW had signed an agreement to lower wages to 'save jobs',  
which was disputed by many workers on the shop-floor. While Denso  
workers in Manesar were locked-out, Denso workers in Tychy, Poland,  
organised protests for wage hikes matching the wages increases for  
FIAT workers.
(6) Today the situation seems even more explosive, given that the  
April 2010 'minimum wage hike' of 30 per cent for Delhi workers does  
not compensate for the enormous inflation of food and transport prices.
(7) For video-interview with these Hero Honda workers see:_http://visions-of-labour.org/clip.php?clipId=2458
(8) For concept of 'workers' self-inquiry' see:_http://libcom.org/library/renascence-operaismo-wildcat


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