Says Supriya RoyChowdhury of the Institute for Social & Economic Change, in Bangalore, in a paper in the Economic & Political Weekly: “The turn towards economic liberalisation and private sector-driven development has led to a certain loss of interest in the working class… as far as political parties across the left/centre-left spectrum are concerned. This has led to the disappearance of a political/ideological anchoring for the working class movements.”

“Industrial strife has increased mainly due to strikes in PSUs.” Amit Mitra, secretary general of Ficci

Later, the high-growth trajectory in the 2006-08 period had a positive trickle-down effect as sources of employment and better wages marginally neutralised the effect of economic reforms. However, with the current economic slowdown leaving thousands of employees stranded without jobs and social security, collective protest and demands for union recognition have again become the flavour of the season.

“Labour has been neglected since 1991-92. For long they have kept numb because of their insecurities and fear of losing their jobs; but now that they have their back to the wall, they are fighting back. The economic crisis has acted as a trigger,” says Sharit K. Bhowmik, dean of the School of Management and Labour Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

RoyChowdhury points out that the problem is growing at the foundation with the rewriting of employment relations in which a non-permanent (contractual) workforce exists alongside a steadily shrinking permanent workforce. Simultaneously, the decline and closure of the large number of small-scale and unorganised industries has thrown thousands out of jobs with little compensation and social security.

New Forms Of Protest
In the new economic environment, the character of the new labour upsurge is also different. Unlike the 1970s and 1980s, wage demands are not at the centre of the protests. The main concerns of agitating workers seem to be basic issues such as union recognition, high productivity demands and the increasing concern over outsourcing and contractualisation.

Giving an example of the Japanese auto components maker Musashi, based in Rewari in Haryana, Rakhi Sehgal, an activist with the New Trade Union Initiative (a workers’ resource centre), says the firm declared a lockout on 6 April to counter protests by workers against what she called “excessively high production targets”.

Talking of her experience in the Gurgaon industrial belt, Sehgal says, “Companies such as Hero Honda have refused to allow 1,800 casual workers at their Dharuvera plant to join a union of their choice. Cases under the Arms Act and Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC Act have been filed against the leaders.” A questionnaire sent to Honda failed to elicit a reply.

These protests have also highlighted the fact that contractualisation of permanent jobs is a major issue. A Hyundai spokesperson, for instance, admitted that the company has on its rolls 3,000 contract workers against just 1,600 permanent employees. Maharashtra Deputy Commissioner of Labour N.V. Palve pointed out that Glaxo’s Nashik unit had enforced a voluntary retirement scheme for a large batch of temporary workers who had served the company for over two decades. These workers were routinely given work for seven months in a year, and re-recruited after a five-month break.

Much of the current wave of unrest is among contract and temporary workers for whom recourse to legal redressal in industrial and labour courts is closed. “After the Cipla Supreme Court judgement decreeing there is no employer-employee relationship between a company and its contract workmen, legal avenues have been closed. Companies do not throw out contract workers. They just terminate the contract,” says labour lawyer Sreelekha Wagh.

Union leaders admit that the big, central unions are failing to rise to the occasion. Amar Nath Dogra, vice-president of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, says, “The condition of unorganised workers is pitiable. Millions of them have lost jobs in the past seven to eight months, but they do not have anywhere to go. They do not have anybody to represent them as unions have their limitations and cannot take up their cause.”