[Reader-list] Fw: [pudr-info] Press Statement on Maruti workers' hunger strike

[Nagraj Adve]

PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

Press Release

8th Nov 2012

Stop Curbing Maruti Workers’ Right to Dissent:

PUDR strongly condemns the strong arm tactics of the Haryana police in
attempting to disrupt the 48-hour hunger strike that began yesterday,
November 7, in front of the DC Office, Gurgaon.  In an impressive show
of solidarity and joint action, over 150 workers in jail custody, all
workers inside the Manesar plant   and over 500 workers outside the DC
Office, Gurgaon are on hunger strike right now. Many local workers’
unions are in support of the
 struggle of MSWU. Barely had the programme started when the police
descended on the spot yesterday morning, tore down the tent of the
workers and picked up 29 workers from the spot, including one of the
main organizers. The workers were taken to the Bhondsi police station.
Members of the Maruti Suzuki Workers  Union (MSWU) and workers’ unions
 of Gurgaon and some journalists followed up and pressure was mounted
on the police until 27 workers were released. However, two workers
named Ram Niwas and Om Prakash, were kept under illegal detention.
They were taken to Sector 46, CIA, police station.

As the PUDR team began inquiring after 5pm, it was revealed that the
workers had been shifted to the Sector 10, CIA police station. A Tata
Sumo vehicle with some people in it left the premises as we entered
the police station. However, the Inspector, Mr Sanjeev Bhullara,
categorically denied any Maruti workers having been brought there and
directed us to the Sector 10 A police station and then very soon
assured that the workers will be released within a couple of hours.
PUDR expressed its concern for their total safety, no torture and
immediate return. According to the two workers who were released
around 9pm and 10 pm, respectively, they were able to see the PUDR
team from the vehicle that left the premises of the Sector 10, CIA,
police station. They were taken to a lane in the residential area
 and kept in the vehicle for one and a half hours and then sent to the
Sector 10-A police station.  It is outrageous but no longer shocking
that once again the Haryana police used pressure tactics on these two
workers urging them to leave the union and assuring that their
termination would be revoked and the two could join work. And that the
matter can be looked into by minsters and the Chief Minister himself.
Worse still, the police threatened them that their fate would be the
same as a person being beaten inside whose loud screams filled the
air. The entry of corporations and multinationals in the absence of
any semblance of protection for workers’ rights makes the working
class vulnerable to the violence and illegal actions of the state
machinery and capital today that we need to collectively resist.The
operations of the Maruti Suzuki India Ltd management through the
police and administration of the state make it clear how uphill it is
for the  MSWU to negotiate for the revoking of the illegal termination
of over 500 workers and a fair and unbiased enquiry into the incidents
of July 18. The management with the help of the police and the
administration is hell bent upon breaking down of the political right
of the workers to unionize and bargain collectively. Undeterred by the
police action, the hunger strike resumed and continues now.

PUDR supports the struggle of the workers by demanding:·
An independent and unbiased judicial enquiry to be initiated into the
events that led to the death of the manager Awanish Dev. The judge
nominated should be someone both parties are agreeable to.·
Release of all arrested workers. Reinstatement of all terminated
workers.·
End of police pressure and coercion on workers in jail custody, inside
the plant and outside- and their families too.·
Upholding of workers’ basic political right and democratic right to
organize and struggle for their just demands!