Now we are trying to understand what exactly are the problems of the workers which need to be addressed and

when we fully understand what they really are wanting, we will try and work out appropriate solutions to meet those genuine requirements.
To give you some ground facts, the number of labour strikes have actually been on a declining trend. If you rewind back to 2005, the year had witnessed as many as 227 labour strikes. Compare that with just 79 in 2010. The contrasting fact is that though the number of strikes have been on a decline, the ones that occur are usually more intense and include a large mass of workers. While about 1.38 lakh workers went on strike in 2001, the number shot up to 3.06 lakh in 2008. What has caused the number of strikes to go down? Though there are several reasons for this, one important factor has been the hiring of contract labour as against permanent labour. You would be surprised to know that 85% of Maruti's workforce comprises contract labour. You may very well know that contract workers are actually indirect workers who are hired by a company for a specific work for a given duration. They are paid wages by the labour contractor and not the company itself. The company keeps the number of permanent workers to a minimum.

This is perhaps why the demand for the recognition of labour unions was the primary cause for the recent disputes
Employees of the company, 54.2 percent-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, were striking to demand a new union be recognised by the management. Maruti, which operates two manufacturing facilities in India, has fired 11 workers at the Manesar plant since the strike began, citing indiscipline. Media reports said employees had demanded the 11 workers be reinstated. Singh said the company had reinstated them and a disciplinary inquiry would be initiated against them, the news agency said.

employees join unions for one primary reason: they are dissatisfied with how they are treated by their employers and feel the union can improve the situation. If the employees do not get organizational justice from their employers, they turn to the union to assist them in getting what they believe is equitable. Important factors seem to be wages and benefits, job security, and supervisory treatment. If management treats employees like valuable human resources, then employees generally feel no need for outside representation. That is why providing good working conditions, fair treatment by supervisors, responsiveness to worker complaints and concerns, and reasonably competitive wages and benefits are all antidotes to unionization efforts. In addition, many workers want more cooperative dealings with management, rather than being autocratically managed.1 The union's ability to foster commitment from members and to remain as their bargaining agent apparently depends on how well the union succeeds in providing services that its members want.

 It is a give-and-take process between representatives of two organizations for the benefit of both. It is also a relationship based on relative power. An alternative to management cooperating with a union is to try to stay nonunion. The choice between the two is a strategic HR decision that each employer must make.