ON the first day of the countrywide workers’ general strike on 8-9 January 2019, workers from Daikin and other companies held a rally inside the ‘Japanese Zone’ at Neemrana Industrial Area, Rajasthan. The management perpetrated a shameful attack on the workers with the help of goondas and the police, injuring dozens of workers. An enquiry team comprising Rahul Chaudhury and Shankar Dutt Tiwari from the AICCTU Rajasthan State Council, Delhi HC advocate Hemant, advocate Surya Prakash, Shweta and Abhishek (AICCTU-Delhi) met the families and neighbours of four of the 14 workers arrested by the police as well as some union activists. Three of these families are from Himachal Pradesh and one from Odisha. The arrested worker from each family was the only earning member. With the exception of one, all the families have young children. The police had entered their homes at midnight on 8 January and forcibly taken the workers away. The neighbours and family members said that persons from the Daikin management/contractors were also present with the police during the midnight raid.
The report of the team revealed how the Japanese Zone has become a zone of oppression of workers through corporate loot and Government machinery. For many years now, incidents of oppression by employers, especially foreign employers, have been on the rise in Manesar, Bawal, Neemrana and neighbouring industrial areas. The government-corporate nexus is constantly repressing union activities. Daikin workers were subjected to a brutal lathi charge by the Rajasthan police and Daikin management ‘bouncers’ when they were holding a peaceful rally in support of the general strike.
The union at Daikin has been registered after a long and hard fight by the workers. The owners and the government are constantly afraid that union activities will increase in the Japanese Zone. After the BJP came to power in many States and Modi came to power at the Centre, the 2 States which first amended the Labour Laws were Rajasthan and Haryana. The attempt to crush the right to unionize through repressive policies is still prevalent in Rajasthan despite the change of government.
The following facts came to light when the AICCTU team spoke to the family members, other workers, and union activists:
Keeping the above facts in view, AICCTU made the following demands: stop suppression of workers’ rights inside companies in the industrial area; release all arrested workers immediately; strict action against the goons and police who attacked the workers at the behest of the company; central and state governments should take immediate and strict measures to facilitate the right to unionize by workers; Daikin management must give recognition to the union; all workers who have been removed must be reinstated without delay; talks must be initiated soon on regularization and other demands of the workers.
The present Congress government should learn from the recent electoral defeat of the BJP and immediately put an end to repression and oppression of workers.