India's Maruti workers end latest strike

Workers at India's top carmaker Maruti Suzuki returned to work on Saturday after ending the latest in a string of strikes that have cost the Japanese-owned firm hundreds of millions of dollars. The 13-day stoppage at the Maruti plant, owned by Suzuki Motor Corp, was called off Friday following an agreement between employees and the company. "The workers are back on the job, there is a full shift working at the Manesar plant," a Maruti spokesman told AFP. Maruti has the largest market share of cars sold in India. But in recent months it has seen a sharp fall in output due to a series of labour disputes at the Manesar facility -- to the advantage of rivals such as Toyota. The stoppages have cost the firm at least 19.50 billion rupees ($400 million) in lost production since June, the company says. The unrest followed management refusals to recognise a new union as well as claims of sabotage on the production line and attacks on supervisors. Earlier this month, Maruti was forced to call in police to evict 1,500 workers who had taken over the Manesar factory, which is located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. Manesar, which employs 2,000 workers, normally produces up to 1,200 of Maruti's top-selling Swift and A-Star hatchbacks and SX4 sedans daily. Fast-growing India is critical to the Japanese firm's fortunes because it is the company's biggest foreign market. "Our first aim is to normalise production quickly because we need to meet customer orders," the Maruti spokesman said, adding that there was a backlog of more than 100,000 orders for the Swift.