India's Maruti Suzuki fires 500 workers over riot

Unbelieveable!

@the-grouch

What the heck are they doing in India? or any other country for that matter...

Its business plain and simple. They are taping the second most populated market, now with spending power. Can you even dream of pulling out, bringing jobs back etc. One thing you must remember that if they are there in India or any country for that matter, they are in for profits. No point otherwise isn't it? Suzuki mangement seems to lack the understanding on how to recruit and compensate their work forces in that plant. This what is "unbelievable". The riots are just the by product.

When it is between management and workers, we know which side has the greatest greed.

Have they been arrested and brought up on charges? I don't support firing people legally striking but rioting and causing damage?! See you later!

deepstar6Aug. 17, 2012 - 10:55AM JST

The riots are just the by product.

That's like saying that murdering dozens of people is the result of not allowing a mob to linch a few cops. Riots are never a product of a lack of something, rather unjustified acts of violence that are NEVER the right course of action.

This riot is just going to repeat itself, it would be better for the company to simply withdraw from the area because the uneducated workforce will always act like wild animals.

What Suzuki Motors should do is bring the jobs back to Japan and help the workforce and economy. What the heck are they doing in India? or any other country for that matter...

Maruti Suzuki produces cars for the Indian market. They do need cars there, you realise.

Maruti Suzuki has been operating in India for over 30 years and is the market leader in that country. They have won may awards and Mr Bhargava has even been decorated by the Emperor so, they must be doing something right. Whilst they do export cars from India to some countries they don't export to Japan. I am sure they are using this opportunity to weed out the trouble causers and get rid of them, and quite rightly so. Hopefully things will settle down now.

@basroil

Riots are solution to nothing. No one needs them. The point I am putting forward is that Suzuki management needs to do some introspection here. Riots just dont happen suddenly. It's triggered and always is a by product of something. Who employed uneducated wild animals in the first place? Fire 500 wild animals in the work force, but before that fire 50 monster gozillas in the management.

deepstar6Aug. 17, 2012 - 12:24PM JST

Riots are solution to nothing. No one needs them. The point I am putting forward is that Suzuki management needs to do some introspection here. Riots just dont happen suddenly. It's triggered and always is a by product of something. Who employed uneducated wild animals in the first place? Fire 500 wild animals in the work force, but before that fire 50 monster gozillas in the management.

You'll find throughout the ages riots are stated by very minor grievances that are nowhere near as horrible as the tragedies of a riot. Perhaps these people were getting payed only 1.1 times the minimum wage while they wanted 1.15, and for that the management needed to fire somein order to even consider the raise. The start of this riot was someone losing their job, not work conditions, not health benefits, not because the managers had killed someone. They started a riot purely for greed, and attacked several dozen and killed one, all for money. This is one case where you can keep the management and simply fire everyone involved, as the management was not reported as doing anything to harm their workers.

Standing up for these violent criminals is simply inexcusable

While Suzuki Motors may not be the best model in labor & partnership relationship, when an industrial action reached that extreme scenario with managers being injured or killed, strong actions have to be put forward to set an example of punishing those stirred up the incident. However, firing 500 workers is justified or not is something beyond my knowledge related to case.

Shifting production from India ? An option implies more or less giving up the market share given India's profound believe in protectionism as a tool to block foreign made goods.

Grouch, why would they? Japanese workers cost more in terms of salary, cost more in terms of utilities - for all the unneeded overtime, costs more for land, rent, materials... Suzuki doesn't owe this country anything. More companies are following suit. Japan only has itself to blame.

The riot is sponsored by the communists who are trying to destroy the economic development of India. And these communists are financially supported by China

realmind.... where did get those facts from? Can you send a link? Those are some strong accusations.

The grouch has a point. With the cost of technology transfer, rebuilding a partially burned out factory, cost of transporting raw materials to and finished products from India, training workers, supporting expat managers and their families, is it really so cheap? Then when India gets expensive, moving the whole lot to the next cheap labour country, and starting over again...

What Suzuki Motors should do is bring the jobs back to Japan and help the workforce and economy. What the heck are they doing in India? or any other country for that matter...