In June, Maruti workers at Manesar had been demanding a union for themselves but the company management asked them to join the union affiliated to the Gurgaon plant.

"That is a pocket union of the company which the workers don't want to be part of," says All India Trade Union Congress' D L Sachdeva. Plus, these workers were agitating for some suspended colleagues to be taken back. They weren't, and the workers went on a 13-day strike. The strike ended after the company took back the workers. However, no decision was taken on the formation of a union.

Soon afterwards, there were large scale incidents of sabotage-such as doors falling off completed cars. So, in order to ensure product quality, the company insisted on workers signing a 'Good Conduct Bond,' which they refused. From August 29, the company again witnessed a 33-day standoff on this ‘Good Conduct Bond’.

The impasse is costing a boatload of money for the car company - at least Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) so far by one account.

The ice was broken when the workers agreed to sign the ‘good conduct bond' and the company agreed to reinstate the 18 dismissed trainees. However, the 44 suspended employees continue to remain so, pending enquiries. It was also agreed that the “no work, no pay” rule would apply during the strike period.

Maruti Suzuki India broke months of strike by workers at the Manesar plant on Friday, 21 October. The strike leader has left the company after taking Rs 40 lakh in settlement.

At carmaker General Motors India's Halol facility entered the second week today, causing a loss of production of over 100 units each day.

On March 16, workers resorted to strike at the Halol facility in Gujarat that has an installed capacity of 85,000 units a year, primarily complaining on health issues as well as protesting transfer of some employees to dealership outlets and opposing a long-term wage settlement agreement signed in December last year.

Around 650-700 workers had resumed duty by March 25, after a dismissal threat by the management if there was no return within 48 hours.

GM Employees' Union General Secretary Bharat Maganbhai Patel said: "They (striking workers) are protesting against the transfer of four employees. But our contract clearly says that we can be transfered to any dealer point on work related issues... Such strikes are not good for us".

A series of talks between the management and the striking workers has not resulted in any positive outcome so far.

Following the strike, the company had shifted the production of small car Spark to its Talegaon facility in Maharashtra.

Suffered a production loss of up to 2,500 units so far due to a section of workers at its Halol plant in Gujarat continuing their strike for the 47th day today.

After a six-week tussle, the strike at General Motors India’s Halol factory has finally been called off, with the workers and management reaching an understanding.

GM India vice-president, corporate affairs, P Balendran, said: “The remaining workers that were involved in a labour dispute in our Halol plant have decided to call off their actions and will resume duties as of tomorrow morning.” He said the agreement between management and workers was supported by state labour department officials in Vadodara.

The strike had received moral support from two international agencies, the US-based Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, formerly known as the National Labour Committee, and the International Metalworkers’ Federation.

Protesting non-payment of their salary and allowances, a section of Air India pilots have decided to go on ‘no-pay-no-work’ agitation from Friday 14January 2012 midnight.

The pilots held a meeting in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and decided to go on the agitation from midnight tonight, said a pilot associated with the development. This is like ‘work-to-rule’, said another pilot who requested anonymity. “The airline management can pay the oil companies when they refuse to sell them jet fuel. They can pay for car rental when the company asks for payment but they have no money to pay the employees for months", the pilot said.

The pilots said they would be on agitation till the government pays our due allowances for five months, which is 80-85 per cent of ‘our salary component’.

After the cancellation of at least 44 Air India domestic flights from Delhi and over 50 nationwide on Saturday, domestic pilots of Air India called off their undeclared day-long strike on Saturday evening after the airline management agreed to pay them two months arrears of Productivity-linked incentives (PLIs) by January 20, an additional month of arrears of PLI by February 20 as well as clear all their PLI and other dues by March.

This was the third pilot strike in Air India in less than three years, with the previous two strikes being in 2009 and 2011. But this time around, the strike ended very quickly.

All dues of the pilots will be cleared by March subject to the clearance of Air India’s Financial Restructuring Plan by the government.

Air India CMD Rohit Nandan secured the approval of recently-appointed civil aviation minister Ajit Singh and top officials of the civil aviation ministry to give the concerned assurances to the pilots.

Strike has commenced at solar panel and CD-maker Moser Baer's Noida unit from October17 where workers are demanding a revision in wages and bonuses."Unfortunately, a very small group of approximately 150 associates from the packaging section of one of our optical disc plants, out of around 10,000 associates, have come up with unreasonable demands," Moser Baer India CEO (Blank Optical Media & Consumer Electronics) Bhaskar Sharma said.

Workers at Moser Baer's Noida facility struck work last week demanding a revision in wages and bonuses.

According to brokers, the company has not satisfactorily addressed the demands put forth by workers. "Most of these workers are manning the critical optical disc plant. The company may suffer losses, if the labour unrest continues," an institutional dealer said.

On Oct 18 2011, Dunlop India ltd.(DIL), declared suspension of work at its Sahaganj factory in West Bengal's Hooghly district, alleging law and order problem at the plant and non-cooperation from workers.

Mainly because of the law and order problem at the plant, inability to remove goods and material from the factory and non-production. In this situation it is not possible to run the factory," a DIL spokesman said.

State Labour Minister Purnendu Bose described the DIL move as 'undesirable' and said the management of the Pawan Ruia-owned company must make it clear whether it has the intention of running the factory.

According to Bose, the DIL management had not responded to the government's invitation to come for meetings to find ways to solve the problems. "We have also sought a detailed report from the management on how it proposes to make the factory viable, but we are yet to receive it."

Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee said his department would soon convene a meeting in a bid to solve the problem.