Manesar, Oct. 10: Over half a decade of fragile but largely peaceful industrial relations in Haryana’s Manesar is at risk as an unrelenting management, a union lacking mature leadership and a dithering state government seem to be unwittingly conspiring to light a fuse.

Three warning bullets allegedly fired inside a factory’s premises yesterday underscored the threat looming over the industrial township, 40km from Delhi, which last witnessed violence in 2005.

On Friday, nearly 2,500 workers of Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s Manesar Plant I went on a “flash” strike, their third in four months and six days after a pact had ended the 33-day strike No. 2 that lasted the whole of September.

The younger workers are distrustful of the older union leaders whom they accuse of kowtowing to the management, and “ultra-Left elements” are suspected to have entered the scene.

Maruti has termed the strike illegal and a mockery of the October 1 agreement. It sacked 10 workers and five trainees and suspended 10 employees yesterday.

But nearly 4,000 workers from Maruti’s three sister plants in Manesar — Suzuki Powertrain, which supplies engines and transmissions (gearboxes) to Maruti, Suzuki Castings and Suzuki Motorcycles — have joined the strike to express solidarity.

The firing came at the Suzuki Motorcycles plant where, the workers say, an official of Tirupati Enterprises, which provides contract workers to the factory, asked them to end the strike and tried to intimidate them with a gun. PTI quoted a union leader as saying a relative of Tirupati’s owner fired three bullets.

Workers at some non-Maruti factories such as Satyam Components, Endurance Auto and Hi-lex India too held a tool-down strike on Friday evening.

Maruti workers want the Plant I to “reinstate” some 1,200 contract workers, barred from the premises since October 1, and 44 workers who were suspended earlier. The plant’s workers had struck work for 13 days in June and 33 days in August-September, demanding better working conditions and the right to form an independent union. The issues remain unresolved.

The October 1 agreement happened when the union blinked and signed a “good conduct bond”.

The pact entails the workers will not damage company property, indulge in violence or produce poor-quality work, and that the management can dismiss them without an inquiry.

Trade unions supporting the movement from outside, such as the CPI’s Aituc and the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, have termed the compromise a victory for the management. The workers too feel their leadership had settled for too little.

They now allege the management has reneged on its commitments and say they are in it for the long haul this time.

Younger voices

A worker, S. Malik, cited the economic slowdown, particularly in Japan, and reeled off figures about how the Japanese-owned multinational had been kept in profit by its Indian plants and the demand from Indian consumers. “Let’s see how long these Japanese bosses can hold out when we in India contribute to half their worldwide profits.”

Veteran trade unionists such as Aituc secretary D.L. Sachdev say they are helping the workers with their negotiations but rue their leadership’s lack of maturity. His worst fear is that “ultra-Left” elements may mislead the younger workers.

In 2005, Manesar witnessed a police lathi-charge on Honda workers some 500 metres from the Maruti plant. Fears of a repeat and worker violence now haunt the township.