China- India Feminist Economics workshop Gender dimensions of paid and unpaid work in China and India Kunming, China

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.

More and more sections of workers, especially women workers organising Fish workers Forest workers Waste workers Street vendors Construction workers Sex workers Domestic workers Anganwadi workers

Many more sections of women workers organising Several of these are: Lowest in the caste, class and ethnicity hierarchy Other Backward Castes Dalits Adivasis

Domestic workers / Waste workers Several types of organisations: Trade unions Co-operatives National networks International networks

Formal economy – in current context 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 anti-union.

Capital Strategy 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

Yet… 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

Varieties of organisational forms 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

Recent debates around organising 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

Challenges facing organisational attempts by women workers 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

Challenges… 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