Lockout at Toyota-Kirloskar: The Future Space for Labour

Author(s): SOBIN GEORGE

Source: Economic and Political Weekly , APRIL 26, 2014, Vol. 49, No. 17 (APRIL 26, 2014),
pp. 18-20
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24480110

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Lockout at Toyota-Kirloskar
The Future Space for Labour
SOBIN GEORGE
The lockout at Toyota-Kirloskar
Motors in Karnataka was a
strategy by the management
to silence the workers who put
forth their demands and raised
fears about their job security.
Such actions challenge the ability
of unions to negotiate workers'
demands. The Toyota case is a
possible trajectory of weakening Bidadi, near Bangalore, must be seen as
trade union mobilisations.
The author thanks Shrinidhi Adiga, Prasanna
Kumar, Meenakshi Sundaram and Anatha
Nayak for their support.
Sobin George (sobing@gmail.com) is with
the Centre for the Study of Social Change
and Development, Institute for Social and
Economic Change, Bangalore.
i8
establishment at Bidadi in 1997 (George
2006). The history of the present dispute
can be traced back to the long struggles
of workers, which started in 2001 when
the company refused the workers' de
mand for a salary increment and then
suspended and even dismissed some
workers. This led to the formation of the
tkmeu in July 2001. The union thereafter
rearranged in such a way that we took up various issues pertaining to the
The Indian
do not hearindustrial landscape is
reports of labour suspension of workers, wage revision, shift
resistance as often as two decades ago. and leave allowances, etc, though set
Trade and industrial policy reforms, espe tling some of these took years of struggle
cially deregulation and making labour both within and outside the factory.
laws flexible have disciplined labour. The present dispute also started fol
Recent disputes in Maruti automobiles lowing the rejection of a charter of de
at its Manesar unit in Haryana and the mands submitted by the union as part of
ongoing (at the time of writing) one in the yearly negotiations with the man
Toyota-Kirloskar Motors Ltd (tkml) at agement and the developments that
took place thereafter. The major de
two exceptions where workers' organi mands of the union included an increase
sations have stood up against the man of the monthly wage by Rs 8,000 be
agement to voice their demands. cause of the rising cost of living. The
The Toyota Kirloskar Motors Employees union also demanded a rationalising of
Trade Union (tkmeu) submitted a charter cycle time, a five-day working week,
of demands for 2014-15 by July 2013 housing facility/allowance and removal
since the year's agreement was to expire of contract employment in production.
on 31 March 2014. Annual wage incre (Cycle time is a ratio of daily operating
ments are agreed upon by the manage time to the required quantity of produc
ment and union as part of such negotia tion per day. It is used in the Toyota Pro
tions, which take place every year before duction System (tps) to decide the num
the expiry of the previous year's agree ber of workers needed in a group to
ments. The current dispute and lockout undertake a particular task. What is
at tkml, at first sight, appears to be over more important here is the emphasis in
conventional issues of salary incre tps to perform the required task with a
ments, better conditions of work and minimum number of workers.)
against contractualisation. However, The management did not respond to
these issues emanate from much larger any of the demands positively except ini
issues pertaining to the organisation of tially offering a salary hike of Rs 2,400
production. The recent developments, which was increased to Rs 3,050 follow
hence, throw up some new issues, in ing a series of meetings with the union.
cluding about production practices and The reasons that the management gave
ways in which such practices govern for the inability to meet workers' de
labour relations and weaken workers' mands were, "decline of sales and loss
agency; creation of a public image of
due to depreciation of the rupee against
workers' struggle and resistance as dollar
a on import of auto components".1
The union rejected the offer since it was
"violent, anti-industry, and anti-growth"
move and more importantly about the
less than half of what they demanded
and even less than the previous year's
future of the legitimate space of labour.
increment, which had been Rs 4,000.2
Labour Resistance at TKML
The management also refused to change
the existing cycle time, which workers
It is important to highlight the context
of the lockout before addressing
argue
the is irrational and the main cause
larger questions. There has never been a workload and stress. Since the
for high
smooth relationship between workers
bipartite meetings failed several times,
and the management of tkml since its
the union started protesting initially in
April 26, 2014 vol XLix no 17 0223 Economic & Political weekly
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 COMMENTARY

the form ofdharnas and later on through employer manipulates and disciplines the negotiations of worker
token one-day strikes that were held on the legitimate space of labour to its in- rights and force them to ta
10 and 28 February 2014. terest with its unique systems of produc- submissive position in order to
Tripartite meetings with the labour tion organisation and labour manage- their jobs,
department also did not lead to settle- ment strategies. Another important aspect ofTPS is the
ment of any of the issues in the charter element of labour control that is inher
of demands and this eventually led to Labour Relations: ent TheinToyota Way system. The control
its production
the declaration of a lockout on 16 March Ever since the time of Henry Ford and is so intense that
2014. The lockout changed the nature of Fordism (his famous theory of central- movement of work
the entire negotiation process as it di- ised production), automobile companies categorises these m
verted attention from workers' demands have played crucial roles in defining in- which "produces ad
to the question of employment security, dustrial and labour relations. Broadly added value but ne
The management said that the lockout speaking, the combination of Fordism no added value and u
was "a precautionary measure to ensure and the theory of "scientific manage- are supervisors in e
safety of machinery, employees and ment" of Taylorism were central to the monitor and regulat
management personnel". However, the production processes of several big firms workers. These "val
union notes there was no unrest of such across the world. movements" of workers also constitute
a nature and the lockout was declared The tps, perhaps the most notable an indicator in t
"to create fear among the workers and production system after the Fordist pro- praisal by thei
silence our legitimate demands".3 The duction organisation, is based on the performance po
union also considers the decision illegal philosophy of flexible production and tive actions like re
as the management did not follow the specialisation that focuses on lowering and even to termin
mandatory procedure of giving a 14-day of production cost, decentralisation of grounds of "non-p
notice to employees and the state labour production and division of work into Similarly, ev
office before imposing a lockout. core and periphery. disagreement with the supervisor would
Subsequent to the lockout, the man- tps also emphasises values such as be considered acts of "misconduct" o
agement continued disciplinary action efficiency, which the company articulates "threatening" in the language of th
against protesting workers and suspended by the expression "just in time" - to management and used against th
30 workers on charges of "indiscipline achieve a higher level of quality and pro- workers. For instance, misconduct and
and misconduct". Tripartite meetings and duction with the use of fewer resources threats were the grounds for suspensi
discussions with the state labour minister including manpower. It is interesting to of union members as during the presen
on 18 March also failed. On 20 March, note how this system of production organi- dispute.5
the management agreed to lift the lock- sation also disciplines labour, subverts the Completion of a particular piece o
out provided workers gave individual, agency of workers and intensifies work. As work under the tps is determined by
signed undertakings, which comprised a Fumio (2006) notes, factors such as strin- production demand without taking int
new set of disciplinary rules in addition gent managerial control and the deploy- consideration the availability of work
to the existing rules and regulation of the ment of contract workers are essential ers, so as to minimise the cost of prod
company. The union, however, rejected prerequisites for the success ofTPS. tion. Studies conducted in Toyota units
this proposal and took a position that the Following Toyota's global strategy, in India and other parts of the world al
lockout must be lifted unconditionally, production jobs at tkml are divided into showed that tps is the major cause o
The union announced a relay hunger core and periphery layers along with the health concerns for workers (George
strike from 2 April 2014 until the manage- fragmentation of a single job into sepa- 2006). The workers at tkml interpr
ment withdrew suspensions and lifted rate activities which is organised in a the unique system of Toyota production
the lockout without demanding "good group, with production performed both to be "less hands, more work and less
conduct" undertakings from workers. The inside and outside the mother plant, tps pay". One of the workers puts across h
crisis affects as many as 8,200 workers also envisages the use of a reserve work- experience with tps in simple language
including 4,200 regular workers of tkml force that is employed purely on a con
0 0 ....assume that at first ten members were as

and another 4,000 workers in the sup- tract

plying firms. During the second week of req
April the impasse between the union gen
and the management was continuing. For in
Let us now come to the larger questions, lead
, , , 1 , i_ i_ , t plete that work. Next time, the company
As noted in the beginning, the lockout lockout it has been able to manage pro- . , , , ,
0 °' 0 r again decreases the team strength from nine
at tkml is to be seen beyond issues of duction to meet market requ
wages and conditions of work. It is a with its use of contract emp
story of the processes through which the trainees. However, such pr

Economic & Political weekly raun april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 19

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COMMENTARY

The undertaking that the manageorchestrated overpowering of the union

When the demand is high, it is met
with either increasing the work orasked the workers to sign in orderby the management points to several
ment
reducing the number of members lifta the lockout also appears to be anissues in the future for workers. These
to in
over to project workers as militantinclude the complete takeover of labour
attempt
work group - both would result in
work. It is worth noting that one and not adhering to rules and regula space by the organs of management,
of the
major demands of the union was toFor instance, the undertakingquestions about the capability of a union
tions.
states that the worker will (a) maintainin representing workers' concerns in the
rationalise the cycle time of production,
which workers consider exploitative
absolute peace on resumption of work,present nature of organisation of work
and stressful. (b) abide by the rules and regulation ofand above all the entire question of
the company as laid down under the cerworkers' confidence in labour unions.
False Imagery: Labour Militancy
tified standing orders of the company,Another possibility is the emergence of
(c) participate
Another important concern are the im in kaizen (part of tps) newer forms of workers' collectives in
and in workplace improvement, (d) do the long run, which is divided across
ages created about a legitimate negotia
allotted
tion as being militant, anti-industry and work for full hours of duty ashierarchies within the workplace, where
anti-growth in the public sphere. For
per the
in working hours, (e) not be absentthe management plays a key role like the
from aworkplace during duty hours,Team Member Associations that the
stance, the Toyota group, Tokyo, made
public statement that "production (f)
in not
its to use mobile phones inside thetkml management had constituted for
factory, and (g) not interfere with manworkers before the formation of the
Indian assembly units was suspended
due to threats against the manage
agement's legal rights to take measuresunion. Whether the unions will be able

ment."7 Also, the company stated to

inprotect
the its property. to overcome such challenges of a "new"
Such
lockout notice that . .to ensure safety of an undertaking by workersproduction organisation would decide
workers and management personnel, would not only squeeze the existingthe extent and nature of the space for
company decided to announce thespace lockof workers for legitimate protestlabour in the future.
out". Such reports created a public and im
negotiation, but create fear that
would silence and discipline them fur
age that there was serious labour unrest
at tkml, which led to the lockout. How
ther. The management could make this As reported by Shekar Viswanathan, vice chair
man Toyota-Kirloskar Motors, India, retrieved
ever, till 16 March, when the lockout was work to an extent and at the from http://www.newindianexpress.com/
strategy
time of writing (7 April) about 40 work business/news/Lockout-Halts-Toyota-Car-Pro
declared, there were no cases reported
duction-in-India/2oi4/o3/i7/article2ii4633.
of the management being threatened ers had signed the undertaking and re ece#.UzLcZiS6bIU
joined work out of fear of losing their Interview with Meenakshi Sundaram, leader,
and properties being damaged. Workers
CITU, Karnataka, conducted on 18 March 2014.
also did not stage any violent forms
jobs. of
It was also reported by the workers Interview with Prasanna Kumar, president of
protest other than a dharna andthat twothe management spread news about TKMEU, 21 March 2014.
Interview with a TKML worker, 21 March 2014,
relocating
token strikes subsequent to the failure of the plants to Tamil Nadu if also see Fumio (2006) for more details on TPS
their year-long negotiations over
thethe
dispute continued. Interview with Prasanna Kumar, 21 March 2014.
charter of demands. Interview with a TKML worker, 21 March 2014
Conclusions
Furthermore, the union and workers For details, see, http://www.japantoday.com/
category/business/view/toyota-suspends-indi
also noted that they never wanted Whatto is worrying here is the already
an-auto-production-due-to-labor-unrest
Interview with Prasanna Kumar, 21 March 2014.
stop production as it would also lead to
narrow labour space, which appears to
be further diminishing. The ways in
loss of pay and employment.8 Workers
REFERENCES
which
therefore argue that the lockout wasthe demands of the workers are
Fumio, Kaneko (2006): "Toyota and Asia Auto
silenced as in tkml are indicative of the
nothing but a strategy by the manage bile Workers" in Labour in Globalising As
ment to restrain workers from puttingdiminishing of labour space even for Corporations: A Portrait of Struggle, Asian T
Monitoring Network Series, AMRC, Hong Kon
forward their charter of demands. As unionised workers. The crisis has reached
pp 181-214.
the president of the union, Prasanna such a juncture that the union had toGeorge, Sobin (2006) : "Workers' Struggle in To
Kirloskar Motors, India: Changing Capital Lab
Kumar, notes: deviate from its original focus on their Relations in Trans National Corporation
charter of demands. This carefully Labour File, 4(1): 34-37.
...once the company announces a lockout,
lifting of lock out will be the first priority of
the employees. Their plan became success
ful. Now out of desperation we are demand Permission for Reproduction of Articles Published in EP
ing a lifting of the lockout. The company
No article published in epw or part thereof should be reproduced in any for
said, yes, we are ready to lift the lockout but
you should sign for our undertaking of good permission of the author(s).
conduct... Our hunger strike now is for the A soft/hard copy of the author(s)'s approval should be sent to epw.
unconditional lifting of the lockout and the
immediate reinstatement of suspended In cases where the email address of the author has not been published along
workers...Our charter of demands still epw can be contacted for help.
remains unresolved.

20 April 26, 2014 vol XLix no 17 0253 Economic & Political weekly

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