Suzuki To Open Indian Plant With Two Guards For Every Worker
The Nikkei’s good contacts to Suzuki ( CEO Osamu Suzuki occasionally blogs for The Nikkei) did not fail the Tokyo wire. Yesterday it was reported on a rumor basis, today, it is officially confirmed that Maruti Suzuki will restart production at its Manesar factory on August 21, about a month after a mob killed the firm’s human resources manager and burned down parts of the factory. The factory makes the Swift hatchback.
According to Reuters, Maruti Suzuki will start making 150 cars a day from Tuesday with 300 workers, while 500 armed police will be on standby to ensure safety. Maruti Suzuki’s chairman, R.C. Bhargava, says the company created its own force of 100 guards in addition to existing security. This makes for two members of security forces for each worker. Managers and supervisors will received bodyguards.
300 workers is a far cry from the former 1,700 worker level. Additional workers might be harder to find than police men. Says Reuters:
“After last month’s violence, police initially sought to detain all 2,500 workers who may have been present in the plant at the time. Most of those workers fled. Police now say only a few hundred workers may have been involved in the riot, but Maruti could face an uphill task finding enough workers to operate the plant after the violence.”
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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In Jan and Dean's "Surf City", there were 'two girls for every boy'. This sounds decidedly less fun.
Cost of Swift hatchbacks just went up.
Osamu Suzuki should just order the permanent closure of the place, tear it down, and move the production machinery to a portion of India - far far away - where people actually would like to work for a living and not murder others in anger. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure this out.... The guards are a temporary measure, at best. Who could work under such circumstances? (I'm speaking of the management, here).
Some of the above seem to think this is an expensive measure. I expect the security thugs are paid 4 bucks a day, (500*4/150) so each car will cost twelve bucks more to make. That ain't much, even in India. So at the risk of turning this into real journalism, bertel how much are rent-a-boy security guards in India paid? It is pretty much minimum wage in Australia to sit in a gatehouse and look at passes.