Honda workers protest against lathi-charge at Tapukara plant

A mass protest was carried out on Friday evening at Tau Devi Lal stadium in Gurgaon against the brutality faced by Honda workers at the Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) plant in Tapukara in Alwar, Rajasthan.

Trade union workers of different plants in Manesar were protesting against the brutal lathi charge workers faced on February 16 at their Tapukara plant with nearly 1,200 workers going on strike at the facility.

“Four workers were terminated, 12 permanent workers were suspended and 500 contract workers were terminated by the company in the first week of this month after a disciplinary inquiry. These terminated workers along with some supporters today blocked the exit gates of the plant thereby taking the employees inside the plant as hostage. So police had to intervene to open the gates,” HMSI Senior Vice President General and Corporate Affairs Harbhajan Singh told Millennium Post. 

The strike by the workers at the Tapukara plant came a day ahead of HMSI opening its fourth plant in Gujarat. The protesters have been demanding reinstatement of all the laid-off employees and formation of a trade union in Tapukara, the process of which had been postponed by the administration since August 2015.

They are also protesting against the administration for forcing the workers to work for eight extra hours and not paying for the overtime work. “We have written letters to the police department and Deputy Commissioner of Alwar district to inform them about the situation of the workers at the Honda plant, but no action has been taken yet”, said Nayan Jyoti, an activist from Tapukara. The protesters alleged that the administration has also hired 500 bouncers to make sure the workers do not gather and discuss about forming the trade union.

During the protest and lathi charge, around 100 workers were injured and 50 were admitted to a nearby hospital for first-aid. The Tapukara HMSI plant has a workforce of around 4,500-5,000, out of which about 2,500 are permanent and 1,500 are contract labourers. 

Sources also revealed that after the incident, close to 1,200 casual/migrant workers have failed to join back to work and now the plant has facing about 2,000 vacancies to get the production started.

HMSI had previously experienced a violent labour stir, when in July 2005 a protest by its Gurgaon workers, seeking higher wages and reinstatement of suspended employees, turned into a major showdown after police cracked down on them.