Mohali: Contract Workers Demand Union Registration, Threaten to Block Highways

New Delhi: Thousands of contract workers of an automotive part manufacturer in Punjab’s Mohali, who are fighting to get their union registered and were able to secure solidarity from the protesting farmers earlier last month, have now threatened to block highways in case their demands are not addressed at the earliest.

The workforce, employed on a contractual basis at Freudenberg NOK, the global technology group which has got an automotive parts manufacturing unit situated in Mohali’s Basma region, are up in arms since August this year against their management which allegedly is opposing the unionisation of the contract workers.

Since December 14, the aggrieved workers, in batches, are demonstrating outside the Mohali’s Labour Office. There are over a thousand contract workers, working in shifts, in the manufacturing unit, while the strength of permanent manpower is about a hundred.

“We will hold a convention on January 9 and will decide upon a date when we will block the highways here,” Prince Sharma, one among the protesting contract workers of the Freudenberg NOK manufacturing unit told NewsClick over the phone on Friday, further alleging, “We are forced to take this decision because the registration of our union is getting delayed because of both, the management and the labour department here.

The contract workers of the automotive part manufacturer had first applied in Mohali’s labour department to get their union registered in August this year, following which, in November, the contract workforce saw gates of the company closed for them.

The name of the proposed union is Freudenberg NOK Mazdoor Union.

“The company closed the gates for all the contract workers in November, following which we sat on protest,” Sharma told NewsClick. According to him, the protesting farmers, who were agitating then against the contentious reform-oriented agriculture laws also came out in support of the industrial workforce.

Leaders including Rakesh Tikait of Bharatiya Kisan Union – Uttar Pradesh and Darshan Pal Singh had visited the protest site and addressed the workers then.

Solidarity from the protesting farmers then put pressure on the management of the company which rolled back its decision and re-hired the contract workers. “But the issue relating to our union remains pending till date,” Sharma rued.

To be sure, there is a union already registered in the manufacturing unit that engages in talk, on behalf of the permanent workforce, with the management. “In their agreement with the management, the union has agreed not to take up matters relating to the contract workers,” another union member, while speaking to NewsClick on Friday, alleged.

In December, when the contract workers again applied for the registration of their union, the former were told that there is an issue with the name of the union. “We were told that the name of our union is identical to the one which is of permanent union, but that is not the case,” Sharma claimed.

Multiple calls made to Mona Puri, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Mohali, who has been looking after the matter, on Friday went unanswered.

Shyam of the Automobile Industry Contract Workers Union (AICWU) told NewsClick on Friday that the Freudenberg NOK’s matter is a textbook example of how contract workers are discouraged, citing multiple reasons, to form a union. “This is despite the fact that no labour law in the country debars them from getting unionised,” he said.

Meanwhile, the protesting contract workers also held a meeting with Punjab’s Labour Commissioner Praveen Kumar Thind on Friday, but failed to secure any solution regarding immediate registration of their union, NewsClick had learnt.

NewsClick also tried to reach Thind over the phone, but multiple calls made to him too elicited no response.

The protesting contract workers are planning to now invite again the farmers’ leaders and other central trade union leaders in their proposed convention, in the hope to exert pressure on the management and the labour department. “We are left with no other option. Come what may, we will form our union,” Sharma said.