Suzuki Riots: Police Wants To Arrest Whole Workforce, Riots Pre-Planned

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Police in India is seeking to arrest the entire workforce of 3,000 at the Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar factory after a Wednesday riot left a manager killed, hundreds injured and the factory torched, Reuters says. Maruti Suzuki’s factory is closed. A lengthy shutdown that could cost $15 million a day is expected.

“Part of the manufacturing area is burned, the whole building is burned, and the people who are running the factory are injured and admitted in the hospital, so it will take a little time,” said a Maruti Suzuki official.

Meanwhile, the Hindustan Times reports allegations that the riots were pre-planned. According to the report, workers had been piling up iron rods and wooden logs and were waiting for the right moment

Maruti Suzuki also called the riots an orchestrated act of mob violence.

Labor contractor Rakesh Choudhary, who was present at the spot when the violence erupted on Wednesday said: “Wednesday’s violence was planned. The workers were planning it for a week. It started at 8.30 am when supervisor Ram Kishore Majhi went to the production unit and (worker) Jiya Lal misbehaved with him when the former asked him to behave properly”. Choudhary said it was a trivial issue and the supervisor did not use any abusive language.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Steve65 Steve65 on Jul 21, 2012

    If your workforce is so disgruntled that they planned and carried out a violent assault, you've got serious labor relations problems. Most likely related to a "we've got you over an economic barrel and we're going to abuse the effing hell out of you you can take it or starve" approach. Pointing a finger at them and shouting "bad workers, behave yourselves" is a nice "blinders on" feel good strategey, but it's far less useful than understanding the reason, and fixing it.

  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Jul 21, 2012

    No matter how serious the problems were at that plant, it's illogical to destroy your livelihood. I'm not sure the issue is caste or culture. Years ago, celebrities were asked what advice they would give to aliens from another world on how to deal with the human race. Comedian Steve Allen advised, "Be wary of us. Don't trust us. We cannot even be relied on to act in our own self-interest." He may have been right.

  • Pastor Glenn Pastor Glenn on Jul 23, 2012

    Sad. Looks like Maruti Suzuki didn't do enough due diligence about the workforce and 'culture' in the area. Mr. Suzuki may well just say "move it." Perhaps to a civilized area of India. Who could blame him? Kind of like Hyundai realizing in 1994 after a 5 year experience in Quebec, that the workforce there was perhaps not as advertised. Hyundai learned - they put a new plant in Montgomery, Alabama and in fact it is going to go to a 3rd shift soon, with a good workforce - making excellent wages (for the area). Not forgetting that Alabama is in no way comparable to India - obviously. I haven't heard of any workplace violence such as this anywhere in the USA since the early part of LAST century, in fact.

  • Indyb6 Indyb6 on Jul 27, 2012

    After having stated what I did about people of Haryana, let me be clear that I am in no way defending their actions. They are IDIOTS. Violence is never the solution. And their actions helped paint a bad picture of India. I am pretty sure they don't give a truck about what image they are projecting, but the damage has been done. I was just trying to convince my fellow ttac'ers to not judge a whole country based on the actions of a group. I repeat again - the people who did this are IDIOTS. they must have had their reasons, but riots and killings are not acceptable. That is all I have to say.

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