Research and Resources
Workers in the Supply Chain of Electronics Industry in India
This paper attempts to analyse the dynamics of the electronics industry and the fate of electronics workers in India in the broader context of the problems of India’s economic development in the new global politico-economic regime. The electronics industry recorded a significant growth after liberalization. However, the nature of this growth is raising serious concerns. The growth is mainly in IT services, and not in electronics manufacturing. Moreover, whatever is the growth in electronics manufacturing, it appears to be more import intensive. The value added in this industry in India is merely 5-10 per cent. All electronics giants with manufacturing bases in India, such as Samsung, LG, Dell and Hewlett Packard, import 90 per cent of parts from overseas. In the case of Samsung the majority of the components are imported from Korea, Singapore and China. Current government initiatives in the form of a new electronics policy and the new manufacturing investment zones poli-cy are an attempt to accelerate the growth in electronics manufacturing. The size and scale of oper-ations of the majority of electronics manufacturing units in India remain small, and the huge majori-ty of them are in the informal sector. Moreover, a significant portion of jobs in the formal sector are also informalised. The huge majority of units engages less than 40 workers each and therefore is exempted from various labour laws including the Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers stat-ute. Further relaxations in labour laws are extended to electronics industries under various schemes in most of the states of India. The expansion of this industry in India is comparatively new and therefore the majority of the workforce in this sector is mostly first generation workers.
There are rarely any trade unions in electronics sector. However, recent strikes in some electronics manufacturing plants show that the process has started. The working conditions in the industry are some of the worse. The majority of workers receive only minimum wages. There are serious prob-lems of occupational health and safety. Samsung in Noida (Uttar Pradesh) is using the strategy of exploiting the apprentice workers in a big way. There are no agency workers in this factory. Howev-er, the ITI apprentices constitute about 50 per cent of the workforce. There is a significant differ-ence in wages of regular workers and apprenticeship. It seems that this is going to be a general trend in the industry. To organize the electronics industry workers, it is necessary to focus on the cluster of electronics manufacturing plants emerging in various regions. Awareness building cam-paigns among workers in these clusters and among the students of ITIs that are supplying the ap-prentices to these clusters can be used as an initial strategy to create common platforms of elec-tronics industry workers and ITI students.
Informal Sector Map of India
Informal Sector in India and Challenges for its Transformation
Current phase of globalization came with a new dynamics of informalization. On the one hand, establishing the free play of capital’s logic it has accelerated the destruction of some of the informal sectors, like handloom, traditional pottery, traditional utensils, traditional carpentry, traditional charcoal makers, traditional saltpan workers, traditional iron implements, traditional shoe makers, traditional oil business, traditional toy making, and many micro and small scale industries in various sectors etc. The list is extensive. In this paper this aspect is not discussed, but it is well studied and well documented. The people in the labour movement have observed these things happening at large scale particularly in 1990s and thereafter. On the other hand, according to the requirements of the new profit maximizing strategies in new international division of labour and post-fordist models of production, new sections of informal workers and new informal sectors are created or some existing ones are expanded in such a way that they are completely dependent and linked with the global value chains. For organizing the informal workers and for increasing their collective bargaining power, following aspects need to be inbuilt in the organizing strategies: A) In the wage sector (including the home workers working on piece rate wages) the effective strategy for transforming the informal sectors can be organizing industry unions and practicing Industry wide collective bargaining to set up industry wide standards for wages and working conditions. B) In self employed sector (may also apply to home based piece rated workers), an increasing focus on exploring and practicing such organizing strategies that may help in inclusive transformation of informal sectors in such a way that increases the sustainability of their livelihoods and sustainability of their organizations. The organizational strategies that provide a space for a combination of strategies of collective bargaining and co-operativization may prove most effective. C) Focus on organizing strategies and organizational forms that ensure proportional representation of socially excluded sections, and women in the leadership at all levels of organization, and also that insures the incorporation of special issues of these sections of workers at each level of organizational activities and in the charter of demands at each levels of collective bargaining.
The capitalist expansion means nothing but commoditizing and privatizing everything whatever is still left in the public space and centralizing the ownership and control of everything in the corporate hands; and also continuously capturing new areas for profitable investments, new markets and creating new consumption needs of the people. But, in a given politico-economic structure of the world it comes across some limits periodically, and therefore it enters in a crisis. There can be many factors behind this but the most important factor is always the only one: Huge load of unemployed capital accumulated in a process which creates acute inequalities in the society, and exhaustion of the profitable investment opportunities in given geographical and politico-economic limits.
Shrinking spaces for collective bargaining in India
The development of society depends on the wealth produced by its own social labour. The nature of social development in terms of inbuilt concerns for the wellbeing of the people depends on the extent of social equality in the ownership and control of means of production and the mechanisms for distribution and redistribution of wealth produced by social labour. In a capitalist society, ownership and control of crucial means of production is generally concentrated in a small elite section of the society and large majority of masses survive only on their labour power. This is not only true for the wage labour but also for the large section of the peasantry (small peasants who live in an illusion of being the owner of means of production but actually market has converted them in to wage labour on their own fields). In such situations, the nature of social development in terms inbuilt concerns of wellbeing of the people depends only on the strength and power of collective bargaining of the masses at different levels-at the level of a production unit, at the level of industry, and at the level of policy making.
Resurgence of the working class movement- Hopes and challenges reflected in the recent struggles
All-round offensive of the capital against the labour and people at large in the current phase of globalization forced the labour movements and peasant movements and other people’s movements to go on defensive. It resulted in an overall downfall in the labour movement and other people’s movements. The working class movements could not stop the wheals of corporate led globalization; however they never left the battle fields, challenged at each and every step of the capital’s attack on labour and people at large. When old forces, old organizations, old strategies and old movements became irrelevant new forces, new organizations, new strategies and new movements started emerging. However, the movement is still in a transition period, still scattered both conceptually and physically and it has still long way to go in consolidating itself to emerge as a strong unified political force.
SEZs-The New War Zones of Working Class in India
Indian society is presently in a transition and moving fast towards a new phase. Whether it is for better or for the worse? Whether it will be heading towards resolving the multidimensional crisis of Indian society and be able to move towards building a more equitable society? Which path is better for moving towards more equitable and sustainable development? There is no foolproof answer to any of these questions as yet. The new social forces and new alignments and new social movements are emerging and it seems that whole society is engulfed in a long lasting conflict. This is also linked with the politico-economic developments taking place internationally. The development strategies based on establishing huge Special Economic Zones and anti-SEZ struggles are also the reflections of these conflicts. This is also not specific to India; but closely linked to the politico-economic developments taking place world over.
Corporate led Globalization aggravating the problems of occupational Health and Safety
Globalisation and liberalization has aggravated the problems occupational health and safety in India in two ways-by shifting hazardous industries and operations from developed countries to India, and by paralyzing the already inefficient legal enforcement machinery responsible to ensure safety at workplace.
Social security- A struggle of survival for Workers in the age of Globalization
Commenting on the emerging economic, political and social structure of the world, some one rightly said that we have only two options now-socialism or barbarism. The comment makes a great sense at least in terms of understanding the realities in Asian developing countries. Globalization brings such vulnerabilities for Asian people in their overall life that are comparable to colonial period; and in some aspects even worse. In almost all developing Asian countries, particularly the south Asian countries, the phase of globalization and liberalization coincided with a drastic change not only in economic life but also in social life. It led to drastic increase not only in economic vulnerabilities but also the social vulnerabilities.
NREGA and the scope for revival of rural labour movement in India
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), a landmark legislation enacted in 2005, is a major step towards realizing the employment as a legally enforceable right. Most important aspect of the act is its strategy of growth throw employment. The employment generation is to be done throw development works in rural areas. Therefore, the Act actually clubs together the development rights and employment rights; aims to develop crucial infrastructures needed in rural areas like roads and water resources etc. and side by side ensure employment to rural folk in the lean periods. The overall impact of this Act, if implemented properly, can be far reaching and it may not only reduce the pains of poor rural people but it may have a positive impact on overall socio-economic development of the nation as a whole. Its real importance can be properly appreciated by situating it in the broader politico-economic context.
Aggravating Problems of Social Exclusion and Challenges before the labour Movement
Ambedkar rightly said that the caste is not only the division of labour, it is also a division of labourers. The same is also true for gender divisions. The caste divisions were created by the ruling social classes to stabilize the exploitative social system but the gender division is the gift of nature for reproduction of human beings. But the systematic discriminations against laboring castes and the women both were created by the same exploitative socio-economic-political system established by the ruling social classes. Both dalits and women not only face exploitation and discrimination by the state and the employers but also by their fellow workers. The problem is so serious that it also percolates in the labour movements and social-political movements. These movements are targeted to build a more democratic and equitable society, but the issue of representation of dalits and women in these movements is generally ignored, and therefore in a broader sense, unknowingly, they also operate as apart of the same social system that produces and reproduces these social divisions. It is one of the major challenges before the working class movement in India.
Bangladesh Garment Industry in Turmoil
Bangladesh garment industry is presently in turmoil, because rather than the investors and the profits, it is the workers who are capturing the headlines. By sacrificing their lives in the struggle for revision of minimum wages, they conveyed the investors and the state that they were no more willing to perish in the profit machine, and instead have been attracting the attention of international communities towards the hardships of the garment workers. The workers were demanding nothing special, but to implement the wage revisions (which are still not satisfactory) declared by the government itself. By sacrificing their lives in this struggle, the workers have raised a big question-why should they be compelled to perish in a profit machine? This article aims to shed some light on the wages and working conditions in the garment industry and the recent struggles on minimum wages in Bangladesh.
Political Economy of Special Economic Zones in China and Implications for Labour
China is moving fast on the track of economic development. By all means it is a unique path of capitalist development in the unique global political economic situations of the 21st century and with unique historical and politico-economic situations of China. This is also unique in the sense that even when decisively moving in well defined directions to achieve well defined goals, the state is moving very cautiously after doing experimentations at each step. Special Economic Zones are actually both the laboratories for these experimentations and also the models of the China way of capitalist development.
CSR and the Political Agenda of the Corporate
Book – The Reality of CSR – AMRC
The current phase of globalization is most aggressive phase of capitalist expansion resulting in a brutal drive of capital to commoditize whatever is available in the universe, to forcefully capture-convert all the public space in to the private space, and transfer the ownership and control of everything in corporate hands. It is also restructuring the global political economy and changing the way the world economy was organized and governed in the earlier phase. With the private capital sitting on the driving seat and taking control of all wealth and resources and even the regulatory functions, the finance capital controlling all the world affairs (sitting at a distant place and detached from production activities), and the capital having attained unrestricted mobility invading all corners of society and the world in hunt for super profits, the whole world in essence looks like heading towards a stage of conscious barbarism. This organizational and governance structure of the global political economy is justified by theory of neoliberalism, which establishes the market as the main mechanism of socio-economic governance. The role of state regulations is considered to be destructive to the health of society and economy, and market is projected as self sufficient in regulating and balancing all affairs of the economy (and thereby everything else) and taking care of all the problems of society like poverty, unemployment etc. However, frequently occurring economic crises and aggravating problems of chronic poverty, unemployment, massive displacement of population, distress migration and environmental disasters expose the monstrous character of this market god and all the myths about it. Neoliberalists are forced to accept that these are the result of ‘market failures’ (however rather than market failures, these are caused by markets’ victories). They advocate even more freedom to markets in order to avoid these ‘market failures’, but forced to advocate for some relief measures (at-least apparently) in order to save imposed-acquired reputation, credibility and acceptability of the market god, corporate priests and the whole neoliberal religion. Here comes the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It is being propagated that the ‘externalities’ (neoliberals consider poverty, unemployment and environmental disasters etc as externalities of the system and not internal to the system) that result from the ‘market failures’ should be taken care of by corporate voluntary initiatives.
Liberalization of Economy and Politics of CSR in India
Any one historically investigating in to Corporate Social Responsibility in India encounters with two situations: one, India has a long tradition of philanthropy; and two, India has a long history of highly irresponsible and inhuman behavior of the corporate. On the one hand there are examples when businessmen donated money and played important role in establishing charitable institutions for the poor people; and on the other hand there are innumerable examples of large scale human tragedies created by the corporate just to earn some more profits or to avoid loss of profits. Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 is the representative picture of monstrous face of the corporate which appears again and again in the form of high incidences of OHS tragedies in factories and construction sites; large scale human tragedies caused by environmental pollution and also in the form of large scale destruction of livelihood systems and displacement of people due to land acquisitions and corporate made environmental disasters.
Center For Workers Education 