The automotive belt is no stranger to protests by workers, but this is arguably the first time that contractual employees are taking the lead and unions are backing them

“The production in entire Manesar will come to a halt if your demands are not met. Be firm. If the Honda management stops supplying food to the striking workers inside, we will make alternative arrangements. Let’s take this fight to a logical end,” a stout middle-aged union leader from Napino Auto and Electronics Limited addresses the striking workers of Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Private Limited (HMSI) on a service road outside Gate No.1 of the company’s plant in Manesar Sector 3 on Thursday afternoon.

While most of the workers squat in a semi-circle facing him, the rest stand behind him listening attentively and occasionally bursting into loud sloganeering, hailing the workers’ unity and denouncing Honda management. A few others hover around the food and juice vendors, and a jalebiwala, just a stone’s throw away, least bothered about the now “routine” rhetoric by union leaders for the past over one week. A lone water tanker parked at a distance also attracts a good number of workers.

It is the twelfth day of the contractual workers’ strike in the country’s prominent two-wheeler company on Saturday, but none of sides are ready to blink first, leading to an impasse. And what had begun as a mark of resistance by a handful of contractual workers against the management’s diktat, asking them to proceed on a three-month-long leave on November 5 citing slowdown, has now gradually snowballed into a full-fledged “workers’ movement” in this automotive belt — with a real threat of a spillover.

The plant has been shut indefinitely and around 2,500 contractual workers, including 1,800-odd workers inside the plant, are holding a round-the-clock sit-in.

The trade and workers’ unions have also jumped into the fray, handing over memorandums to the district administration and expressing solidarity with the striking workers.

“The company has retrenched around a 1,000 contractual workers over the past few months citing slowdown, with the assurance to take them back after three months, but it did not happen. The contractual workers held a hunger strike before Diwali on this issue and the management assured that they would formulate a policy on the matter. But again 200 workers were told to go on leave on November 4. The workers decided to stand their ground suspecting that they might never be called back to work,” said a permanent worker, who has come to the spot to express solidarity with the striking workers.

The permanent workers joined ranks with the contractual employees after the plant was shut “till further intimation” on November 11. The workers’ Charter of Demands is also pending with the company for around 18 months now, adding to the unrest among them.

“Our demand is simple. Regularise all those who have been working for more than 10 years and duly compensate the retrenched workers. The company has opened three new plants over the past 15 years, it is all our hard work,” said a contractual worker.

A new trend

Though the automobile industrial belt — spread till Neemrana in Rajasthan along the National Highway-48 — is no stranger to strikes, protests and dharnas, Inqlabi Mazdoor Kendra central committee member Shyambir Shukla, a labour rights activist, sees the emergence of a new trend with the contractual workers taking the lead and the unions backing them up.

“Never before has a workers’ movement has been led by contractual workers. It was always the permanent workers and the unions taking the lead and the contractual workforce supporting them. But the trend has reversed with this movement. It marks the beginning of the end of individual leadership and heralds the rise of collective leadership,” he said.

One of the reasons for the reversal of roles for the permanent and contractual workers is the growing number and prominence of the latter in production, and the failure of the unions to speak for them.

“While the salaries of permanent Honda workers have increased from ₹3,000 to ₹70,000 since 2005, the contractual workers are still paid ₹15,000 per month. The unions in the automobile sector have mostly been acting in collusion with the management to contain the anger of the contractual workers, but failed to work for their welfare,” said Mr. Shukla.

Besides, the unions too have weakened over the years because of dwindling numbers and role of permanent workers. In several companies, the permanent workers comprise only 15%-20% of the workforce.

In fact, around 15 companies, mostly with active workers’ unions, have been shut down in the region over the past one year rendering thousands jobless, but no voices were raised.

On the flip side, the contractual workers lack the legal immunity unlike the permanent workers.

Economic slowdown

Bellsonica Auto Component India Employees’ Union vice-president Ajit Singh said the Honda workers strike was also the first instance where the protest had stemmed from the economic slowdown and not aimed directly at the company’s management.

“While all other movements in the region earlier, including the Maruti hunger strike in 2011, were directed against the company with the demand to form a union or seek implementation of the Charter of Demands, the present crisis has its roots in the economic slowdown. It has more political hues to it,” said Mr. Singh.

Use of social media

The striking Honda workers using social media platforms to spread word about the protest is another highlight. Former BBC journalist Sandeep Rauzi has been running the protest-related news on his year-old YouTube channel and Facebook page “Workers Unity”, helped by a team of over a dozen former journalists.

He said their efforts had helped in lending voice to the striking workers, especially when the mainstream media had chosen to stay away from it. He laments that none of the major Hindi news channels had carried the news about the protest.

“Our social media campaign is not just putting pressure on the mainstream media to give space to this protest, but has also been successful in creating pressure on Honda, adversely affecting its brand value worldwide. No doubt, the voice of the workers is now reaching the common man directly. The six videos and live coverages of the protest over these days have garnered several lakh views on different platforms and reached around 50 lakh people, which is a huge number,” said Mr. Rauzi.

He added that the workers also trolled actor Akshay Kumar, Honda’s brand ambassador, on Twitter.

Former Haryana CPM State Secretary Inderjit Singh said that the current stalemate at Honda is essentially an equation of no-holds-barred privileged position enjoyed by the management and the army of desperate job-seekers at the receiving end.

“Apart from this unequal equation, the power of the State is also at the beck and call of the company, a fact endorsed by the massive police force ready to act inside the Honda premises where the retrenched workers continue to hold a sit-in. It is paradoxical that the BJP- JJP ruling alliance has proclaimed the formation of the Common Minimum Programme, purportedly honouring the election promises made by both the allies, including 75% jobs for the youth from Haryana, but is keeping a tacit silence when the youths are being thrown out of jobs in flagrant violation of laws of natural justice and basic tenets of human rights,” said Mr. Singh.

No response

HMSI declined to comment on the queries sent to it regarding the strike.