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China- India Feminist Economics workshop Women workers organising in the current context While in earlier phases of capitalism workers in the formal workplaces organised relatively easily, in the present phase of globalised capitalism in the context of labour surplus economies, the proximity and direct connection to capital may be a disincentive in organising. On the other hand, confrontation with other actors and authorities may facilitate organising, especially in a relatively democratic polity. Hence there may be a need to reexamine some of the tools that workers have carried over from the earlier phase to the present. Fish workers Forest workers Waste workers Street vendors Construction workers Sex workers Domestic workers Anganwadi workers Several of these are: Lowest in the caste, class and ethnicity hierarchy Other Backward Castes Dalits Adivasis Several types of organisations: Trade unions Co-operatives National networks International networks Picture more varied Large number and proportion of women workers in garments, diamond, electronics, SEZ etc. Organisers express severe difficulties in organising workers in these sectors – employers even more aggressive and antiunion. Ruthless strategy of accumulation by dispossession: By cost-cutting Union-busting Wage theft by different means Displacement of original populations Tax concessions to corporates and Cheap labour Increasing reports of women organising in different ways with a great deal of difficulty: Small and large factories Call centre employees Informal alliances Lack of regulatory entitlements Trade unions Co-operatives Area-level committees Community run or Trade union run Training centres Workers’ clubs Small savings groups Self-help groups Accessing government and other schemes and entitlements Contract labour Organising contract workers Night work for women Women’s participation in trade unions and in leadership of trade unions – women’s cells, quotas / reservations for women Majority of women workers in the informal economy The formal economy employs less women The better paying jobs are occupied by male workers No-union policy by employers Attempts to amend labour laws and women’s response to it Could one surmise that organising by workers generally and women workers specifically is becoming more difficult the closer the workers are in relation of capital? Interesting experiments of getting different sections of women workers together e.g, women affected by the issue of stigma Offensive of capital – insecure precarious work– need for strategising – forming alliances across sectors and borders
