Workers from various industrial units in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt in Haryana held a rally on Tuesday against the recent labour law reforms by the Narendra Modi Government.
The rally, organised by the Workers’ Solidarity Centre (WSC), Gurgaon, also handed over a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, to be sent to the Prime Minister.
In the rally, the workers pledged to fight the proposed labour law reforms by the Modi Government, which they said, would strengthen the "existing regime of exploitation and repression", WSC said in a release.
Among those who took part in the rally were unions belonging to factories of Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki, Manesar, Nerolac Paints, Autofit, Sunbeam, Belsonica, Maruti Suzuki, Gurgaon, and Munjal Kiriu, among others.
"The ‘reforms’ brought in by the Modi Government will effect a further erosion in workers’ rights," said Ramniwas, President, WSC, adding that the Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera-Bawal-Bhiwadi industrial area situated in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, formed the core area of the developmental model in India being projected for the grand ‘Make in India’ project, but the workers' voice was suppressed here, apart from violation of trade union rights by anti-worker managements.
Citing instances of 'victimisation', the workers said key office-bearers of Hero MotoCorp Gurgaon were terminated recently for alleged ‘indiscipline’. "Munjal Kiriu workers in IMT Manesar are on strike in front of the factory gate for the last one month with the demand of taking their suspended union representatives back. The President and Vice-President of Autofit factory in Dharuhera still remain suspended for asking for workers rights. Workers at POSCO IDPC in Bawal, Rewari, have been on strike for more than five months for their union rights. Due to pending settlement, workers at Omax Dharuhera and at Suzuki Motorcycles Gurgaon have refused to receive their ‘Diwali gifts’," WSC said.
Fearing that the proposed changes in labour laws "will only decrease the real wage, increase contractualisation and make jobs more insecure, thereby adversely affecting access to basic needs of food, health and education," the WSC said it would build a larger unity of struggling workers, unions and pro-worker forces in the entire industrial belt to resist the 'anti-labour' reforms.