Cooperatives as an inbuilt element of the strategy for Organizing the

WorkersSurendra Pratap, Centre for Workers Education, New Delhi

WE ARE Wage Labour 403,000 people in India die

every year due to work-related

problems

Total membership of

CTUs-24.8mT (including others)-30mUnionization-Only 6.35%

Including others 7%

Ratio of labour cost to total cost decreased from 7.78 to 5.81% (2000-01to-2004-05

Labour cost increased by 36%, Profits by 305%

Total workers

457.5m

7% Unionized

Selfemployed

258.2m

Wage labour

199.2m

15% Unionized

Casual 129.7m

Regular 69.5m

43% Unionized

Manufacturing total

45.9m

Factory workers

6.08m

Factory Contract workers

27%

Minimum wage becoming the maximum

Working 10-12 hours

Rampant violation of labour laws

WHO WE ARE?

For attracting capital all the governments are competing with each

other

Competition between states takes form of a

war against their own working class

Appearance: competition

between labour of various countries

Footloose Capital exploiting the global reserve army of labour

Hazardous and labour intensive operations shifting to developing countries

Asia as one of the hubs of Global Factory

Informalization of labour and Post fordist Global Factory

Offering•Cheap labour•Cheap land and resources•Peaceful IR

ByMaking laws meaning lessAllowing Self certificationMaking SEZs and NMIZsExpanding reserve army of labourTrade union repression

The Conflict

Capital Wants

More profit, less costs

Privatizing and

Commoditizing

everything

Control over labour and

all resources

Expanding the reserve

army

Linking all econ.

activities with global value chain

So that labour

reproduces labour

Labour Wants

Job security and

pension

Decent wages and

working conditions

More leisure less workload

Better future for children

Democratic institutions to ensure

redistributive justice

Balance of power decides the fate of labour

Labour has only power-Its united strength

If no union,labour laws become meaningless

Only unions ensure workers’ rights

Balance of power depends on who’s

politics, economics and culture gets dominance

in people’s life

ORGANIZING

For Capital

Increasing competition& disunity

by increasing diversity

Expanding reserve army of labour

Establishing

dominance of capital in all spheres

of life

Exercising political

control by propagatin

g TINA syndrome

For Labour

Building unity in diversity

Reducing the reserve

army of labour

Reducing the control

of capital by creating

alternative ways of

living and working

Building new hope by

providing a socio-

cultural, economic&

political alternative

CHALLENGES OF ORGANIZING LABOURIncreased capital’s control over labour

Divisions and Competition among workers—creating

difficulty in developing collective consciousness

Sward of unemployment is always hanging on the

head

TINA syndrome established by: Capital’s propaganda at various levels from factory to society; No space for

alternative ways of living and working; Downfall in

the working class movement

State openly favoring capital

Unemployment and huge reserve army of labour

Resurgence of informal sector

Post fordist models of production scattering the production

operations to various countries on the one hand and to various

smaller units and up to the home based level on the other

Informalization of labour-casualization, contractualization-

very few stable workforce in factories

Large scale divisions in the workforce: big factory workers,

small factory workers, home based workers, casual, contract &

regular workers—caste and gender divisions

TASKS FOR ORGANIZING LABOUR

Developing collective consciousness and Rights

consciousness among workers

Insuring job security by way of unionization and building

industrial and regional working class solidarity

Reducing the capital’s control over labour by

breaking the TINA syndrome --by projecting political

alternative and by creating spaces for alternative ways

of living and working

Organizing the informal sector workers

Organizing the informal workers in formal sector

(casual, contract and home based) and in the process

building unity between formal and informal workers

Building unity among all workers of the same industry

Building inter-sectoral solidarity

Building national and international solidarity

SCOPES FOR ORGANIZINGOrganizing the workers also in

community along with at

workplace-

Effective for organizing in

new situations-may strengthen the unionization at workplaces

Also may widen the horizons of

trade union activity &

transform it in to a real working

class organization

Organizing the

Industry or sector trade

unions and forcing the state for industrial collective

bargaining and for setting

industrial standard for wages

and working

conditions

Forming cooperatives as a strategy to organize the self

employed producers, home based wage

workers and service workers of various

kind

Forming cooperatives of workers as consumers

Developing a system of workers’ education

as a strategy for organizing

Developing alternative media for

raising workers’ consciousness and

projecting a political alternative

Cooperatives as an Inbuilt Element of Organizing Strategy

We also know that

More than 56% workers in India are self employed and majority of wage workers are informal

ForReducing

the control

of capital

by creating alternative ways of living

and working

For Reducing

the reserve army of labour

By organizin

g the informal sector

workers

As we know thatMost effective

weapon of capital is to

exercise effective control on overall

life of workers and people at

large

Cooperatives as an Organizing Strategy towards Formalisation of Informal Workers

Pro-capital forces

With the economic development (process of capital accumulation) traditional occupations and small economic units may be absorbed (or destroyed) by the larger economic units and disappear

The Reformist socio-polit.

forces

Transforming informal sector

by forming cooperatives of

the informal workers to make their skills and their products

competitive and to transform

them in economies of

scale

Three approaches for transforming informal sector

The left and trade unions

Transforming the informal

sector by way of regulating the working

conditions and labour relations in all economic units including the small ones

+

Formalization by absorbing or destroying informal sector

 Many traditional informal sectors almost completely disappeared, for example handloom, traditional pottery, traditional utensils, traditional carpentry, traditional iron implements, traditional shoe makers, traditional oil business, traditional toy making etc.

Capitalist development could not advance at steady rate and very soon entered in a crisis, particularly during 1970s New Informalization: Reinventing Informal sector as a source of capital accumulation in new international division of labour and post fordist models of production-- Converting informal sector producers/workers in to wage labour at their own workplaces New discourse on informalization: advocating for welfare of informals and not formalization-i.e. maintaining them as reserve army of labour

Two tendencies operate simultaneously; many informal sectors or units are destroyed and at the same time many new ones are created

Formalization by regulating the working condition and IR

 Legislations for regulating working conditions and labour relations in different sectors like plantations, mining, Beedi industry etc. Agriculture Workers Act in Kerala and Tripura Industrial Disputes Act 1948 was amended in 1976 to extend applicability of Chapter V-B, and thereby extending the job security to workers in enterprises with 100 or more workers, rather than the earlier threshold limit of 300 or more workers Enactment of Contract Labour (Regulation &Abolition) Act 1970, which ensured regularization and job security to contract and casual workers engaged in core activities and in jobs of perennial nature Shops and Establishments Act in different states of India were legislated to regulate the smaller informal sector establishments which were not covered by the labour laws.

Formalization by Way of forming cooperatives Hundreds of examples of successes and failures

Most widely discussed success stories are of Amul Dairy Cooperative and Kerala Dinesh Beedi cooperative

Several examples created by SEWA-recent interesting example of construction workers cooperative

But cooperative movement could not emerge as a dominant social force.

Few if any, in-depth studies exploring on this issue with above perspective

One of the critical factors behind the failure: More emphasis on its economic aspect and ignoring its political aspect (alternative ways of living and working)

Linked with the inability in synthesizing the left and reformist strategies which is reflected in the disunity between the left and the reformist political forces

Forms of Cooperatives

Production

Cooperatives

Service

Cooperatives

Consumer

Cooperatives

Production CooperativesScopesCooperatives of self employed producers-agriculture, fisheries etc Cooperatives of self employed wage labour---home based industry workers, garments, beedi etc

Example of Thailand garment cooperative-Creating Brand (TRIMS??)Scope of Adda workers cooperative in Delhi-Job work for factories

Better collective bargaining power

Cheaper inputs and better prices

Better wages to home based workers

Collective consciousness and collective political power of workers

Inter-linkages may reduce control of capital and market Alternative way of living and working

Service Cooperatives

ScopesCooperatives of various kinds of self employed service workers like masons, barbers, tailors, plumbers, electricians, and the workers doing various kinds of repair works Cooperatives of construction workers------SEWA example

May ensure Better collective bargaining power

May ensure a sustainable livelihood

May develop a Collective consciousness of workers

Alternative way of living and working

Consumer Cooperatives

ScopesCooperatives of workers as consumers for purchasing the consumer items in bulk at cheaper prices

Cooperatives may run schools, medicine stores, hospitals etc

Cooperatives may run community kitchens May ensure Better collective bargaining power

May reduce the cost of living and ensure better life and better future

May develop a Collective consciousness of workers

May develop a collective power of workers as consumers and citizens

Alternative way of living and working

Challenges for Workers CooperativesAcquiring a factory and running it as a workers cooperative is highly difficult because they are completely different economies

Capitalist factory bases more on capital , Cooperative bases more on labour

Linkages of capitalist factory in the market may not be favourable for cooperative

Cooperative needs to build its own linkages in the market and society according to its own social structure and economy. This transformation needs a longer period and generally before it happens, cooperatives collapse

Building a sustainable workers’ cooperative needs a completely new initiative-primarily as an initiative of organizing the self employed producers or home based workers, or the workers as consumers—A process in which gradually a collective enterprise emerges with its own market and its own social linkages

Challenges for Workers Cooperatives

Primary aspect of Cooperatives is politics and not economics

It is bound to fail or loose its significance if there is more emphasis on economics than

politics

Politics here means an alternative way of living and working

It helps in organizing the workers and its success and significance depends on organized

strength of workers

Lastly

Cooperatives can also be looked at as a practical way to challenge privatization—along with challenging the privatization at policy level

If the state is vacating the spaces for private capital, the people’s forces can also compete for those spaces (with in their limitations) by way of building cooperatives

Thank You

Table: Distribution of Workforce in various sectors of Formal and Informal Economy in India (1993-94)

S. No. Sectors of Economy Workforce in Organised segment (million)

Workforce in Unorganised segment (million)

1 Agriculture, forestry and fishing 1.413 235.865

2 Mining and quarrying 1.097 1.641

Manufacturing 5.048 37.328Electricity, gas and water supply 0.989 0.467

Construction 1.197 11.019Trade, 0.315 25.744hotels and restaurants 0.155 3.006

Rail Transport 1.316 0.478Other transport 0.922 6.933Storage 0.119 0.021Communication 0.744 0.424Banking and insurance 1.505 0.993

Real estate 0.005 0.111Business services 0.101 0.362Legal services 0.013 0.363Public admin. and defence 4.482 6.286

Education 4.061 3.942Research 0.277 0Medical and health 1.175 1.450Religious and other community

0.728 0.779

Domestic services 0 1.485Laundary, dying and dry cleaning

0.002 1.204

Barber and beauty shops 0 0.959

Tailoring services 0.001 3.170Other personal services 0.005 1.203

Sanitary services 0.142 0.227Services not categorised 0.006 1.999

International and extraterritorial bodies

0 0.060

Recreational and cultural services

0.126 0.487

Uncategorised 0 0.068All sectors 25.980 348.069