Maruti workers at Manesar plant on strike again

MUMBAI (Reuters): Workers at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant in Haryana went on strike on Thursday, a spokesman for the company said, halting production for the second time in as many months.

In June, about 800 workers went on a 13-day strike at the Manesar plant in Haryana, crippling production and leading to more than $90 million in lost output. Workers had demanded recognition of a new union specific to the plant.

“One of the supervisors was assaulted by some workers at the Manesar plant yesterday,” the spokesman said, adding that a section of workers had stopped work on Thursday after the company tried to take disciplinary action.

India’s top car maker, Maruti, 54.2 percent owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, produces about 1,200 vehicles a day from the Manesar plant, including the hatchbacks Swift and A-Star models and the DZiRE and SX4 sedans.

The spokesman said only one shift had been affected so far, which translates into a loss of 600 to 650 vehicles.

Maruti, which sells nearly half of all passenger cars in India, saw its sales drop by 8.8 percent to 80,298 vehicles in June, marking its first decline since December 2008.