Report by the correspondent of Mazdoor Ekta Committee
Led by Maruti Suzuki Temporary Workers Union, temporary workers from various factories of Maruti Suzuki demonstrated at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on 19 March 2025. To intensify the struggle for their demands, they had formed Maruti Suzuki Temporary Workers Union earlier this year.
Many other workers organizations joined the meeting in support of the protesting workers. These included Mazdoor Ekta Committee, Belsonica Union, Daikin Union, Inquilabi Mazdoor Kendra, Indian Federation of Trade Unions, Indian Federation of Trade Unions (Sarvahara), Centre for Struggling Trade Unions, Shramik Sangram Samiti, Mazdoor Patrika, Krantikari Naujawan Sabha, Progressive Students Youth Association and The Collective.
The workers raised strong demands for permanent jobs and equal pay for equal work along with leaves and other benefits. They said that in the past one month, more than five thousand workers had written letters to the Prime Minister, apprising him of their situation and demands. A memorandum has also been submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office. Other main demands raised in the memorandum are – recruitment of permanent workers on all jobs of permanent nature; permanent employment in various plants of Maruti to all temporary workers who have received training and worked in the company; and an end to the exploitation of workers in the name of apprenticeship.
Addressing the protest, workers’ representatives said that about 83 per cent of the workers employed in Maruti Suzuki’s three plants in Gurgaon-Manesar are temporary workers. The Kharkhoda plant in Sonepat, Haryana – which is set to become the world’s largest automobile production plant – is not hiring experienced temporary workers from other Maruti Suzuki plants. The workers are demanding that temporary workers of various categories working in other Maruti Suzuki plants be given permanent jobs in the Sonipat plant.
The workers said that the central and state governments are completely complicit in the exploitation and atrocities of Maruti Suzuki. The Haryana government, which includes the labour department, police and administration, is resorting to repression to stop every kind of action of the workers – demonstration, negotiation, sit-in, etc. To prevent the workers from organising, the police detains them and tortures them.
The workers said that the central and state governments are completely complicit in the exploitation and atrocities of Maruti Suzuki. The Haryana government, which includes the labour department, police and administration, is resorting to repression to stop every kind of action of the workers – demonstration, negotiation, sit-in, etc,. To prevent the workers from organising, the police detains them and tortures them.
The speakers described the methods of exploitation of workers by the Japanese and Indian capitalist owners. Temporary workers appointed in the name of trainees are made to work as much as permanent workers for 7-8 years at a very meagre salary of Rs. 10,000-12,000 per month. They are then fired with only a certificate. The fired workers had learnt from their experience that their certificate has no validity for getting a job in any other company. The ‘skill training’ of these temporary workers is just a sham. Such workers are given the job of installing or making the same part for years. They are sent back home after a few months and then called again, so that there is no continuous service. After many years, they are called for the examination for permanent appointment, and they are made to fail in the examination and are shown the way out.
The protesting workers stressed the need to strengthen their organization and take their struggle forward. It was announced that on 20 May, Maruti Suzuki workers will also participate in the strike against the four labour codes on the call of central trade unions.
The program concluded with a revolutionary song.